Madeleine’s life-long interest and experience in development of the human potential and in aligning private and public interests has taken her through a winding path of life experiences. After practicing law for several years, she attended the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she received a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in International Relations.
She has worked in the public and private sectors in many capacities, including as the Rule of Law Liaison in an American Bar Association legal reform project in Macedonia, the Attorney General of the State of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, counsel to the Governor of Guam, an educator at the high school and law school level, a public and private criminal defense attorney, a local and federal public prosecutor, and a lawyer in private practice.
As both private and government counsel, she has been the lead in nationwide litigation involving large financial institutions. She has conducted alternative dispute resolutions in Hawaii and Micronesia, and managed many environmental and constitutional cases, including cases about freedom of speech, prisoners’ rights, the conduct and transparency of legislative hearings, and the media’s access to government records.
As a member of the Colorado Supreme Court Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the Hawaii Supreme Court Committee on the Rules of Evidence, she advised state judiciaries about improving the fairness and efficiency of the justice system.
She edited the Academy’s recent book, Freedom from Mid-East Oil, and has a particular interest in creating the political will necessary to reform the national agenda on energy, climate change, fiscal, and monetary policy.