Cody Nagle: From incarcerated drug user to lawyer

Abstract

Cody Nagle, once an intravenous drug user, is now a lawyer. Last week, she talked to ADAW about her trajectory from a drug court in Washington state to an internship at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), where she worked in public engagement on issues of substance use disorder (SUD) recovery, to her current position at the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association (LAPPA) in Washington, D.C., where she focuses on criminal justice reform and stigma reduction. Nagle was one of the first formerly incarcerated individuals to serve in the Executive Office of the President. A recent graduate of Syracuse University College of Law, Nagle is heading back to Washington state to work as a lawyer, where shewas sworn in to the Washington state bar by the same drug court judge who sentenced her 12 years ago.