2012-2014 DRA Fellow How did you initially get involved with DRA? While I have a disability, I’d never really thought about the field of disability rights until I interned with the disability researcher at Human Rights Watch, which really opened my eyes. After that, I knew I wanted to do disability rights work and was … Continue reading “Anne Kelsey”
Rebecca Alexander is an author, psychotherapist, disability rights advocate, group fitness instructor, and extreme athlete. Born with a rare genetic disorder called Usher syndrome type III, Rebecca has been simultaneously losing both her sight and hearing since she was a teenager. She was told that by age 30, she’d be completely blind. Then, at 19, one year … Continue reading “Rebecca Alexander”
2002-2004 Equal Justice Works/ Cotchett-Saperstein Fellow What interested you in disability rights and DRA? My parents are teachers and my mom has multiple sclerosis, so I’ve always been interested in education and disability issues. DRA had a fellowship allowing me to focus on just that – on cases fighting for protections on No Child Left … Continue reading “Stephen Tollafield”
2007-2008 Liman Fellow, 2008-2009 DRA Fellow What drew you to DRA? During law school I worked on asylum cases at Yale’s legal services clinic, and I dreamed of continuing to work on human rights issues after law school. I also grew up with two family members with disabilities, so I was aware of some of … Continue reading “Stephanie Biedermann”
DRA from 2000-2002 as a William Brockett Fellow What was a highlight of your time at DRA? A month and a half into my fellowship, we went to trial against Macy’s. I’m hard of hearing, and DRA got me a captioner so the whole Macy’s trial was captioned for me. Going to trial against a … Continue reading “Rowena Gargalicana”
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”