Heather Rogers

Heather Rogers has been a public defender for over 20 years in the state and federal courts. Ms. Rogers has handled cases at every stage of litigation, from arraignment through trial and appeal. She has represented clients accused of offenses from delinquency to homicide, defended detainees incarcerated at Guantnamo Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, and argued cases in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Rogers is honored to serve as the first Public Defender of Santa Cruz County, her birthplace and home. Ms. Rogers and her team, together with their clients and community, are building a public defense agency where interdisciplinary teams pair zealous trial advocacy with holistic support to defend indigent adults and children accused of crimes, while helping them address the root causes of system involvement and break harmful cycles.

Before her appointment, Ms. Rogers served as a public defender at Biggam, Christensen & Minsloff, the defense firm that previously provided public defense services for Santa Cruz County. Ms. Rogers is a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College, lecturer in Legal Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and frequent trainer at regional and national trial skills programs. Ms. Rogers has also taught at California Western School of Law and Monterey College of Law. Ms. Rogers serves on the Board of Directors of the California Public Defenders Association, Housing for Health Partnership Policy Board, Criminal Justice Council, Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council, and Santa Cruz County Trial Lawyers Association. Ms. Rogers is a co-founder of The Bridge Foundation of Santa Cruz County, a nonprofit organization that provides material support to promote rehabilitation, recovery, and reentry for public defender clients in Santa Cruz County. Ms. Rogers is a Fellow of the American Trial Lawyers Association and has received numerous awards for her advocacy, including the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice Skip Glen Award, the Santa Cruz County Bar Associations Access to Justice Award, and the Santa Cruz County ACLUs Hammer of Justice Award.

Ms. Rogers clerked for the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before starting her career in public defense at Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. Ms. Rogers also served as a public defender in Monterey County and at the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of California before coming home to Santa Cruz. Ms. Rogers has an A.B. in English Language & Literature, with honors, from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where she graduated with distinction and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. Ms. Rogers lives in the Aptos mountains with her husband, children, and pets. In her free time, Ms. Rogers enjoys traveling, hiking, and snowboarding.