Elisa Overall (eh-LEE-sah)

Biographical information

Elisa Marie Overall (known also as “Emo”), has dedicated her career to issues of equity, social justice, and inclusion. She is an experienced non-profit executive, organizational strategist, and advocate.

Ms. Overall became the first-ever Executive Director to the Colorado Access to Justice Commission (ATJC) in March of 2021. The Commission’s efforts include the expansion of pro bono services statewide, increased access to legal resources in underserved rural communities, facilitating ease of access to online legal resources and information, and increasing state funding for civil legal aid.

Prior to joining the Access to Justice Commission as Executive Director, Ms. Overall worked in private practice as defense counsel for indigent defendants, and as court-appointed counsel through the Office of Alternate Defense Counsel.

From 2011-2014 Ms. Overall served as Executive Director to San Miguel County’s Physical Education Program (PEP) Grant, a large Federal initiative that in large part targeted health disparities in the region’s low-income and minority youth. Prior to directing the PEP Grant, Ms. Overall worked to support immigrant communities throughout the Western Slope as Assistant Director to One Telluride, a grant-funded non-profit organization.

A lifelong public servant, Ms. Overall is currently a board member and secretary of RISE Colorado, a nationally recognized non-profit organization for educational equity that works to educate, engage, and empower families of color as agents for change in the education system.

Ms. Overall earned her B.A. from Stanford University and earned her J.D. from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. A seventh-generation Arizonan, Ms. Overall is Mexican-American and grew up between Tucson, Arizona and Hermosillo, Mexico. Since then, she has lived in seven countries, and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.