Palm Beach Circuit Public Defender Carey Haughwout has been elected president of the Florida Association of Public Defenders.

The association represents the state's 19 elected public defenders and their assistants, who lead indigent criminal defense in Florida.

Haughwout has led the West Palm Beach office since 2001. She heads an office with about 120 attorneys and 80 support staff handling more than 50,000 cases a year on an $18.3 million budget.

She will succeed Pasco-Pinellas Public Defender Bob Dillinger as head of the association.