Aundré M. Herron is a graduate of Wellesley College. She holds a master’s degree in African-American Studies from the Boston University Graduate School and a Juris Doctor degree from the Boston University School of Law. She is admitted to practice in the states of Missouri and California.

Following her graduate school training, she taught African-American History and Literature at various institutions in the Boston area, including Wellesley College, Boston State College and Emerson College. She also served as Assistant Director of a residential drug treatment facility in Boston.

After completing her legal studies, Aundre lectured in legal research and writing at the

University of Missouri School of Law and served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Missouri, where she tried over 35 jury and judge-tried cases. During her tenure as an assistant DA, she also served as warrant and extradition officer for the state of Missouri, responsible for the review and filing of criminal charges and matters related to the apprehension, extradition and prosecution of fugitives charged with crimes. In 1984, she was appointed to the faculty of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, where she served as Trial Advocacy Instructor for the Mid-America Regional Trial Advocacy Seminar held at the University of Kansas. She played a key role on a Kansas City, Missouri taskforce on Black on Black Homicide and presented the findings at the First International Criminology Conference, held in Havana, Cuba in 1989.

Following her work as a trial lawyer, she returned to academia, where she lectured in legal research and writing, criminal law, and trial advocacy, while serving as Director of Student Services at the District of Columbia School of Law. She played an instrumental role in helping the school obtain ABA accreditation before graduation of the founding class. In 1991, she joined the staff of the California Appellate Project, where she serves as Senior Staff Attorney, working with inmates on California’s death row and counsel appointed to represent them.

In addition to the unique perspective she brings as a result of having served on both sides of the criminal justice system, Aundré also brings the insight of someone who has lost more than one family member to the homicide epidemic in America. A former member of the Board of Directors for the Northern California Affiliate of the ACLU, she is a sought-after speaker and commentator on capital punishment and is actively involved in the struggle to abolish the death penalty. She was featured in the 2005 independent film “Outside In,” which explores the death penalty through the eyes of people who regularly visit inmates on California’s death row.

Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors for Death Penalty Focus and, in the summer of 2007, was re-elected to a second three-year term on the ACLU National Board of Directors.

In her spare time, Aundré is a successful stand-up comedienne with an impressive array of awards and credits.