Cathy Costanzo became the Center’s executive director in September 2011. She has worked in the mental disability law field since 1977 and has extensive experience in providing representation to institutionalized persons throughout the country and for litigating ADA/Olmstead cases. She is the former director of the Massachusetts PAIMI Project and the former chair of National Disability Rights Network’s Legal Committee. Ms. Costanzo has been co-counsel in a number of class action cases in New Mexico, Massachusetts, Oregon and Ohio seeking to promote the integration, and to expand the rights, of persons with psychiatric and developmental disabilities. Ms. Costanzo is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, with a B.A. in Psychology, and the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Kathryn Rucker, Litigation Director, began her legal career with the Center in August of 1999. Ms. Rucker’s individual representation and system reform work focus on serving adults and children with serious mental illness, as well as individuals with Acquired Brain Injury. She is co-counsel in several of the Center’s class action lawsuits, advocating for the development and expansion of integrated community service systems. Ms. Rucker received her undergraduate education from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and went on to participate in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. She is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, where she volunteered in the domestic violence clinic and worked in co-op positions with Greater Boston Legal Services, the Department of Justice, and the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia.
Steven J. Schwartz serves as senior counsel, after founding the Center in 1976 and then serving as its executive director for 38 years and litigation director for 13. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1971, he represented thousands of people with disabilities over the past fifty years. He has testified before Congress on numerous occasions, successfully resolved a number of damage cases for institutionalized individuals with disabilities, and litigated dozens of class action cases that challenge the unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities in psychiatric hospitals, developmental disability institutions, nursing facilities, and juvenile justice settings. He has provided training and technical assistance to disability rights programs in more than 40 states, authored a number of law review articles, and served on the faculty of the Harvard and Western New England Law Schools.
Heather Alibert joined CPR as Senior Administrative Assistant in June of 2024 after 15 years working in university personnel and human resources. In addition to providing direct administrative support to the Executive Director, she assists with the organization’s fundraising and development efforts. Heather brings a love of organization, policy and process to CPR, as well as a personal passion for mental health rights and access to appropriate care.
Karen Detmers joined the Center in 2007 as a litigation paralegal. In addition to providing litigation support, she manages CPR’s IT and communications operations, and aides in general office and administrative support. Karen came to CPR after serving many years as a paralegal at a Connecticut law firm specializing in disability discrimination in the workplace. Prior to entering the legal field, she worked in the travel industry and in marketing at a southern Vermont ski resort. Karen holds degrees from Mount Ida College and UMass Amherst, and resides with her family in western Massachusetts.
Mia Fry joined CPR in 2024 as a litigation fellow. Prior to starting at the Center, Mia was a Staff attorney at the Disability Rights Center – New Hampshire and a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She is passionate about working alongside people with disabilities to enhance civil rights. Mia graduated from University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School in 2021, where she focused on gaining public interest experience through clinics and internships.
Elissa Gershon joined CPR as a Senior Attorney in February 2024. Throughout her legal career, Elissa has focused on asserting the rights of people with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act to live independently in their communities and have their voices heard. Elissa worked at Disability Rights California (DRC), California’s protection and advocacy system, for more than 20 years; in her last position as Litigation Counsel, she led the organization’s healthcare and community integration (Olmstead) litigation and policy initiatives. Through individual and systemic reform lawsuits, and policy and legislative advocacy, she endeavored to ensure that children and adults had the Medicaid and other services they needed to leave or avoid institutionalization, and to live in integrated settings in the community. After leaving DRC in 2019, Elissa consulted with the National Disability Rights Network and the ACLU Disability Rights Program on voting rights for people with disabilities, developing informational materials and trainings, and participating in legal challenges to voter suppression legislation affecting the right of people with disabilities to participate in the electoral process. Elissa is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). She lives in Berkeley, CA.
Mona Igram is the Coordinator of the Racial Equity Initiative and a senior attorney with the Center for Public Representation. Mona has over 25 years of litigation experience in private practice and public defense, representing young people and families in the criminal and juvenile courts in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Prior to CPR, she worked at the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), where she was the Attorney in Charge of the Youth Advocacy Division office in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts. While at CPCS, Mona was active in several racial justice initiatives. She was the co-chair of the National Association of Public Defenders Racial Justice Litigation Committee and the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Racial Justice Committee. She co-founded and chaired Juvenile Defenders Dismantling Racism at the Youth Advocacy Division. She was a member of the class of 2020 Ambassadors for Racial Justice, a program of the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Center and the Gault Center. Mona serves as a board member of Elevated Thought, an art and social justice organization in Lawrence, Ma. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa and the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law.
Megan Rusciano joined the Center in 2024 as a staff attorney. She has worked alongside people with disabilities throughout her career with a commitment to furthering community integration and expanding civil rights. Prior to joining CPR, Megan was a Senior Staff Attorney at The Arc of the United States where she worked on The Arc’s systemic litigation initiatives. Megan also spent over five years working at Disability Rights Maryland, Maryland’s P&A, where she was the Managing Attorney of the Developmental Disabilities, Health Care, and Victims of Crime Act Team. Megan received JDs from American University Washington College of Law and the University of Ottawa in Canada.
Lila Shane joined CPR as the Director of Finance and Operations in November of 2021. She has been serving nonprofits for more than 20 years in a variety of capacities. Lila is passionate about social justice, kindness, and spreadsheets.
Kathy Walker is a senior attorney with the Center. Kathy has worked with people with disabilities throughout her career in various capacities, with a focus on community inclusion. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a JD/MPH from the University of Miami. Kathy has worked for The Arc’s National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability as a criminal justice fellow, for the Department of Justice as a trial attorney, and for Pisgah Legal Services as the Director of Medical Legal Partnerships. She serves on the board of Eleanor Health Foundation, participates in a steering committee for UNC’s MPH program in rural health, and volunteers regularly with an adaptive CrossFit class.
Morgan Whitlatch is the Center’s Director of Supported Decision Making (SDM) and works from our Washington DC location. Prior to joining CPR in October 2021, Morgan was the longtime legal director and attorney at Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities (QT), where she planned and implemented litigation, legal advocacy and systemic initiatives addressing issues such as legal capacity, decision-making, community integration, discrimination, and health care. While in DC, Morgan also led coalitions that secured the first in the nation educational SDM policy in DC Public Schools and made the District the fourth jurisdiction in the nation to recognize SDM Agreements in its state laws. In addition, she served as the Lead Project Director of the National Resource Center for SDM, an advocacy and education center that is dedicated to advancing less restrictive, community inclusive alternatives to guardianship and has been housed at QT since 2014.
Morgan, a graduate of Georgetown Law School and Wesleyan University, has published and contributed to numerous articles and national reports and presented hundreds of presentations and webinars, mainly on SDM within the context of life events addressing health care, education, transition-age youth, and older adults.