Emily Kaltenbach

Senior Director of State Advocacy and Criminal Legal Reform

Emily Kaltenbach is the senior director of state advocacy and criminal legal reform in the Office of National Policy. In that role, she leads DPA’s state advocacy efforts and efforts to decriminalize drugs, divest from punitive police responses and build health-based alternatives. Emily previously worked in DPA’s New Mexico Policy Office where she was instrumental in passing marijuana legalization, reforming the state’s asset forfeiture law, a model for the rest of the country, and helping start the second law enforcement assisted diversion program in the nation. Before joining DPA she worked in New Mexico implementing rural community-based health centers, helping reform the state’s long-term care system, and setting the stage to implement federal health care reform in the state. Born and raised in rural New Mexico, she graduated from Beloit College with a BA in sociology and a minor in health care studies. She later completed a master’s degree in health administration at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

A young woman holds a sign that says "End the Drug War."

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