'True public servant': Caitlin Fenhagen becomes Orange County's deputy manager

Years ago, Caitlin Fenhagen spent her Christmas packing up boxed lunches with Chapel Hill Police Chief Celisa Lehew. The two ended up together on Christmas after Lehew reached out to Fenhagen to see if there were any resources for people experiencing homelessness and facing the cold weather. 

At the time, there were not. So Fenhagen jumped in immediately to secure hotel rooms and additional resources for community members. 

“Cait is one of those strong women that really looks a challenge dead in the eye and gives it a wink,” Lehew said. 

Last Thursday, Fenhagen became the new Deputy County Manager for Orange County. 

Fenhagen grew up traveling around the globe as her father worked with the United States State Department. 

“I think the thing that influenced me by living overseas is that I really, I really love people, and I love learning about different cultures and different life experiences that people have growing up in different places under different circumstances,” Fenhagen said. 

Fenhagen started her career as a public defense lawyer. Over time, she became a criminal defense lawyer and eventually a capital defender. In 2008, she became the deputy capital defender for the state. 

Early in her career, Fenhagen worked with the Bronx Defenders in New York, where she learned about a more holistic approach to defense work.

“It's different than a standard public defender office in that you work with a social worker and an investigator, and you work on all these other collateral issues that are impacting your clients,” Fenhagen said.

While working as a public defender, Fenhagen worked on a case with Fran Muse, the director of Carolina Student Legal Resources, who was in private legal practice at the time. 

“[Fenhagen]'s just a true public servant," Muse said.  "I mean, her career, her entire career has been spent helping people from marginalized communities, from being a public defender to being the director of the Orange County Criminal Justice Department, and now I see her continuing that work as the deputy town manager.”

Fenhagen later helped Muse create the Orange County Pre-Arrest Diversion Program, which was designed to help first-time offenders avoid a public record on certain misdemeanors.   

In 2015, Fenhagen started working as the director of the Orange County Criminal Justice Resource Department, where she focused on policy as opposed to being in the courtroom. She says the goal of the Criminal Justice Resource Department is to improve outcomes from criminal legal involvement.

Fenhagen said she still sees herself as an advocate for people, even though she isn’t in the courtroom anymore. 

“And so I feel like my work now really embraces that looking at the whole person and understanding cultural sensitivities and the impacts of trauma on people's lives is all part of the work we need to do if we want to successfully support everyone in our community,” Fenhagen said. 

Fenhagen said she hopes that this new role as Deputy County Manager will allow her to continue to make policies that positively impact the community. One ongoing project she's working on is a Crisis Diversion Facility that will be in Hillsborough, which is made to keep people in behavioral health crises out of the emergency room or jail. 

Lehew said Fenhagen always has a vision.

"She's very committed to the community, and she really looks to build teams like collaborative teams, with that same type of vision," Lehew said. "And she's very innovative and creative in programming and what that looks like.”

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