Treatment Court '23 Speaker Bios

Fred Snodgrass, J.D.

Fred graduated from the University of Montana School of Law in 2001. After almost three years in the Yellowstone County Attorney's Office as a prosecutor, he transitioned into private practice in 2004 to provide a variety of legal services to people in Montana. Fred has focused on Criminal Defense, Family Law, and Personal Injury cases and he is a Peer Rated Attorney through Martindale-Hubbell. In 2020 Fred was the recipient of the State Bar of Montana’s Bousliman Professionalism Award and in 2021 he was awarded the Yellowstone Area Bar Association’s Professionalism award. Fred has worked with treatment courts in Montana since 2006 and has presented on treatment courts nationally.  While maintaining his full-time practice in Montana, Fred joined the Faculty for the National Center for DWI Courts (NCDC) in 2022.  

Marie Lane, J.D.

Marie is a project director with the Justice For Vets (JFV) division of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP). Previously, she was a career public defender who served first as an assistant public defender and then as the Director of the Ashtabula County Public Defender’s Office from 1998-2021. Ms. Lane served as the defense attorney representative on the Ohio Supreme Court’s Commission on Specialized Dockets, which oversees the development and delivery of specialized docket services to Ohio’s courts. As a member of this committee, she helped write and implement Ohio’s first statewide rule and uniform standards for specialized docket courts. In 2011, the Ashtabula County Felony Drug Court Program, of which she was a founding treatment team member, was one of the first seven courts to be fully certified by the Ohio Supreme Court pursuant to the new rule. Ms. Lane also served as the defense attorney on her county’s family drug court treatment team and on the advisory committee of the adult felony mental health court.

Anne Dannerbeck Janku, Ph.D.

Anne began her career as an agricultural economist working with family systems in the countries of West Africa. After completing her Ph.D., she became a research professor at the University of Missouri and shifted her focus to people involved with the justice system. Mid-career she accepted an offer to develop a research office for the Missouri Office of State Courts Administrator. Since retiring from that position, she has been consulting with DTCs around the nation regarding matters of equity.

Anne has been very involved in research and enhancing practice in drug courts for much of her career. Since 1998 she has played a lead role in evaluations of Missouri drug courts and reentry courts. She contributed to the implementation of the Risk and Needs Triage tool in Missouri and has been particularly active in developing strategies to enhance equity and inclusion in drug courts. She developed a toolkit to enhance equity in adult drug courts and is currently developing a toolkit to enhance equity in juvenile treatment courts. Through trainings and publications, she continues to encourage drug courts to adopt the best of research-based practices.

Carolyn Hardin

Carolyn Hardin is the chief of training and research for NADCP, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington, D.C. She oversees the daily operations for NADCP’s three divisions: National Drug Court Institute, National Center for DWI Courts, and Justice for Vets. She also oversees the development and implementation of training for the organization. Ms. Hardin currently travels nationally and internationally, assisting teams with planning and operating successful drug courts. She received her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Akron in Ohio and her B.A. degree in public administration from Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama. Her work experience includes resource development and acquisition, program planning and evaluation, and MIS database management. Ms. Hardin has supervised probationers, parolees, and federal inmates and has supervised special caseloads, including sex offenders, dual-diagnosis offenders, and violent offenders.

Jeffrey Kushner

Jeffrey Kushner is the Montana Statewide Drug Court Coordinator with the Montana Supreme Court/Office of the Court Administrator. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Native American/Alaska Native Addiction Technology Transfer Center. Kushner is the recipient of many awards such as, the Oregon Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse President’s Award, Women’s Commission Award from the Oregon Women’s Commission on Alcohol and Drug Issues, and the Administrator’s Award for Public Service from the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Federal government. Kushner is a strong advocate for implementation of evidence-based practices within treatment programs and drug courts. Kushner has been both a Single State Agency Director for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and a statewide drug court administrator. Kushner had developed several instruments and published numerous documents in the treatment and treatment court field. Kushner lives in the foothills of the Bitterroot Mountains with his wife, Siberian Husky and Great Pyrenees.