Attorney, Author, Professor, Disability Activist, Educational Surrogate. Law practice focused on students with disabilities who have been denied an appropriate education. Experience in IEP meetings, 504 meetings, mediation, due process, and manifestation determinations. Some of my practice is spent advocating for LGBTQ students as well as adults with disabilities. Author of Do Not Tweet at an IEP Meeting. Popular local, state-wide, national, and international presenter and trainer on special education legal rights, disability discrimination. Author and facilitator of Mock IEPs, performing throughout The United States. Executive Director and founder of SPED*NET New Canaan, a monthly forum focused on special education and section 504 issues, providing monthly speakers, state-wide conferences, extensive training courses, and state-wide listserv. Created and maintain the website – www.spednet.org – winner of the CT Coalition for Inclusive Education media award. Adjunct Professor for the University of St. Joseph, West Hartford, CT, teaching special education law to graduate students. Surrogate Parent for the Connecticut State Department of Education. Insure that students with disabilities, whose legal guardian is the Department of Children and Families (DCF), receive an appropriate education. Fostered one of my surrogate students! Member of Lambda Legal and GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders). Member of the GLAD Lawyer Referral Service. I personally ensured that my eldest of four children, Ieva, who has Down syndrome, was fully and successfully included in our neighborhood high school. Yep, she even took Algebra. She graduated from Berkshire Hills Music Academy.
