Attorney Hamilton has over thirty (32) years of management, social work, legal and legislative experience in the area of youth justice, family law and child welfare, including over 20 years of prior experience with DCF, beginning as a front-line social worker and culminating in serving as Commissioner from 2007 through 2011 and then again beginning on September 2, 2025. In her first term as Commissioner of DCF, she became an active member of the original Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee (JJPOC) and assisted in the successful enactment and implementation of the landmark legislation raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction in delinquency proceedings to the age of eighteen among several other notable policy reforms aimed at protecting the rights of Connecticut’s most vulnerable citizens. As Commissioner of DCF, Attorney Hamilton is responsible for managing and leading a consolidated child welfare agency with statewide mandates including child protection, prevention and children's behavioral health. This includes managing a staff of over 3000 employees and an annual budget of over $800 million dollars. The Commissioner and her team also oversee the operation of a psychiatric hospital for children and two psychiatric residential treatment programs along with managed the regulatory, licensing and contractual oversight for over 300 private providers.
Attorney Hamilton also created DCF's first in-house legal division in 1998 and managed that operation for almost eight years and had the privilege of serving as the Under Secretary of Legislative Affairs at the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) where she continued to support the work of youth justice reform prior to her initial return to DCF as Commissioner in 2007. From 2011 - 2017, Attorney Hamilton served as a public defender and private attorney representing parents and children involved in child protection and delinquency matters and as the Director of Delinquency Defense and Child Protection from 2017 - 2023.
As Director of Delinquency Defense and Child Protection, she was also responsible for overseeing the operations of 10 juvenile field offices as well as over 150 Assigned Counsel representing parents and youth in both child protection and delinquency proceedings. Attorney Hamilton provided written and oral testimony on all youth justice and child welfare legislation and engaged with legislators and others to promote many child welfare and youth justice initiatives. She also serves as an Adjunct Faculty teaching juvenile law at Quinnipiac Law School.
She was given the opportunity to return to DCF in 2023 to serve in the inaugural position of General Counsel where she had been advising the Commissioner and Executive Team on matters pertaining to child welfare, youth justice, legislation, labor relations, administrative policy, regulations and other legal matters. In that role, she also served as the liaison to the Office of the Attorney General, the Governor's legal team, the Office of the Child Advocate and other state and federal executive and judicial branch agencies. On September 5, 2025, Attorney Hamilton was appointed by Governor Ned Lamont to serve again as Commissioner of DCF.
Attorney Hamilton graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Law and the School of Social Work in 1992 with a joint M.S.W./J.D. degree and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Justice Studies from the University of New Hampshire in 1988.
