Kisha Petticolas is the supervising attorney for the Talbot County, Maryland Office of the Public Defender. Before joining The Office of the Public Defender in 2011, she was the first African American member of the Talbot County State’s Attorney’s Office, where she served for three and a half years.
Kisha graduated from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2006 and was admitted to the Maryland bar in December of the same year. She is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association and was selected as a Fellow of the 2011-2012 Maryland State Bar Leadership Academy.
Kisha graduated from Old Dominion University in 1996 with a degree in English. She spent six years on the campaign trail with candidates like Sen. Bill Bradley for President and Mark Warner for Governor of Virginia. Prior to attending law school, she spent a year working at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) as Special Assistant to the President and Director-Counsel, Elaine R. Jones.
In addition to her legal work, Kisha is also the co-founder of the Eastern Shore Network for Change, a grassroots organization that advocates for social justice and equality in the Eastern Shore region of Maryland. Through this organization, she has worked tirelessly to promote the rights of minority groups, combat systemic racism, and increase access to affordable housing, healthcare, and education for all members of the community.
Kisha was also actively involved in the removal of the Talbot Boys statue in Talbot County, Maryland, which had long been a source of controversy due to its association with the Confederacy and its celebration of Confederate soldiers. The statue, which had stood in front of the Talbot County Courthouse since 1916, had become a symbol of division and racism in the community. She played a significant role as a plaintiff in a lawsuit to remove the statue. The suit argued that the presence of the statue on public land violated the Constitution's Establishment Clause and Equal Protection Clause. The Talbot Boys statue was finally removed in November 2020.