Greenblatt Outstanding Legal Services Attorney Award – Rona Karacaova
Presented to a lawyer who is employed full time by a legal services program in North Carolina and who has made an exemplary contribution to the provision of legal assistance to help meet the needs of the poverty population in North Carolina.
Deborah Greenblatt served as the executive director of Carolina Legal Assistance for more than two decades, where she persevered as a champion for the rights of individuals and children with disabilities despite challenging political and judicial setbacks.
Rona Karacaova is the Managing Attorney of Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Immigrant Pathways for Victims (IMMPAV), which provides representation to immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Before joining Legal Aid of NC in 2002 to create IMMPAV, Rona worked with Connecticut Legal Services and Legal Services of Southern Piedmont. Rona obtained her B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University in 1993 and her J.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law in 1998. Prior to attending law school, Rona worked with UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ankara, Turkey interviewing Iranian and Iraqi asylum seekers, and was the Assistant Director of a Bosnian refugee camp on the Bulgarian border of Turkey.