1999-2001 NAPIL / Westrec Marinas Fellow What drew you to DRA? Before law school, I was an AIDS hotline volunteer. It was a time when we knew how HIV was spread and how to stop it, and treatments were available, but rates of HIV were nonetheless taking off in communities of color. With health being … Continue reading “Robin Goldfaden”
1998-2000 NAPIl/Cotchett-Furth Fellow What made you interested in disability rights work? My daughter, who was born with a disability, was bused to a segregated school an hour away because Walnut Creek, CA didn’t “do disability.” When I went to meetings to fight for her armed with federal education laws, school officials wrote me off, saying … Continue reading “Rhoda Benedetti”
Monica Goracke, 2002-2004 LD Access/ David Boies Fellow What was your focus at DRA? I worked on a lot of different things, but one case addressing inaccessible military family housing at Fort Lewis really stood out. I took the initial intake phone call, and was on the case all the way through filing it in … Continue reading “Monica Goracke”
2004-2006 Equal Justice Works/ Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein Fellow What drew you to DRA? I went to law school thinking I wanted to practice environmental law, but soon realized that my real interest lay in civil rights. I knew I wanted to pursue public interest work, and when I met some of the attorneys … Continue reading “Mazen Basrawi”
2000-2002 DRA Fellow What drew you to DRA? I went to law school knowing that I wanted to do civil rights work. During law school, I tried a number of different fields, from direct services to immigration law to impact litigation at the National Center for Youth Law. Impact litigation was the most meaningful personally … Continue reading “Caroline Jacobs”
2001-2003 Skadden Fellow What drew you to DRA? I went to law school due to my interest in civil rights, and because I have a vision disability I was particularly drawn to the disability field. I spent a summer at DRA during law school because it had been recommended to me as a top public … Continue reading “Brian Dimmick”
1998-1999 DRA Fellow What drew you to DRA? I wanted to be a history professor until my senior year of college when I was writing my thesis and, while it was interesting to me, it felt very removed from the problems of the world. I went to law school to engage with those problems more … Continue reading “Alison Aubrejuan”
Alexius Markwalder, 2003-2005 California Endowment Fellow What drew you to civil rights law? Before law school, I was working in the Civil Rights Division of the federal Department of Justice where I focused on cases seeking to ensure accessible housing. Witnessing the changes in existing construction and plans for future construction and the difference we … Continue reading “Alexius Markwalder”
Meredith J. Weaver joined Disability Rights Advocates in 2015 as a Fellowship Attorney. Since then, Ms. Weaver has represented the American Council of the Blind and its state affiliates, the California Association of the Deaf, the Center for Independent Living, and individuals around the country in litigation and non-litigated negotiations to ensure accessibility for individuals … Continue reading “Meredith Weaver”
Freya Pitts joined Disability Rights Advocates in 2015 as a Liman Fellowship Attorney, focusing on the rights of young people with mental health and learning disabilities who are confined in juvenile halls, and became a staff attorney in 2017. Ms. Pitts received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 2013, and her B.A. summa cum … Continue reading “Freya Pitts”