Elaine Gardner
Project Director, Disability Rights Project
Elaine_Gardner@washlaw.org        

Ms. Gardner has dedicated her career to working on disability rights issues, formerly as the Associate Legal Director of the National Center for Law and Deafness at Gallaudet University, and then as the Director of D.C. Legal Services for Deaf Individuals. She is an adjunct professor at Columbus School of Law at Catholic University, where she teaches Legal Rights of People with Disabilities. 

"This first decade of the new millennium will be one of the most eventful eras in the history of disability rights in America. I feel fortunate to be practicing, and to be at the Washington Lawyers' Committee, during this exciting period."

   IMMIGRANT AND REFUGE RIGHTS PROJECT

STAFF

Laura Varela        
Project Director, Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Laura_Varela@washlaw.org

Laura E. Varela joined the Washington Lawyers' Committee as the Project Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in January of 2006. Prior to joining the Committee, Ms. Varela worked for CASA of Maryland, an immigrants’ rights organization, where she litigated and settled numerous lawsuits against private entities on behalf of immigrant day laborers for failure to pay minimum and overtime wages. Ms. Varela also worked with a team of attorneys in filing an unprecedented lawsuit against the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration for national origin discrimination by systematically denying driver’s licenses to eligible immigrant applicants. Ms. Varela received her J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School where she was honored with a scholarship award for her work and devotion to immigrants’ rights.

Roberto J. Gonzalez                     
Visiting Attorney
Roberto Gonzalez@washlaw.org

Roberto J. Gonzalez joined the Committee in April 2008 as a Pickering Fellow sponsored by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP.  His work at the Committee focuses on Equal Employment Opportunity and Immigrant and Refugee Rights.  As an associate at WilmerHale, Roberto was a member of the firm’s Appellate Group and had an active pro bono practice.  Prior to joining WilmerHale, Roberto clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  Roberto received his law degree from Stanford Law School, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and served as the Senior Article Editor of the Stanford Law Review.

Ruth Spivack       
Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project Outreach Coordinator
Ruth_Spivack@washlaw.org

Ms. Spivack worked as a teacher and paralegal before coming to work at the Washington Lawyers' Committee in 1989. At the Committee, she has primarily focused on political asylum issues. 

"I am both saddened and inspired by the histories of the courageous men and woman who have been forced to leave their home countries to seek refuge in the United States." 

Ruth Spivack    
Coordinadora del Proyecto sobre los Derechos de los Inmigrantes y los Refugiados
Ruth_Spivack@washlaw.org

La Sra. Spivack trabajó como profesora y paralegal antes de venir al Comité de Abogados de Washington, donde ha enfocado sus esfuerzos principalmente en cuestiones de asilo político. Tiene once años trabajando en el Comité de Abogados. 

"Me entristece al mismo tiempo que me inspira escuchar las historias de los valientes hombres y mujeres que han sido obligados a abandonar sus países para buscar refugio en los Estados Unidos." 

   EDUCATION PROJECTS

DIRECTORS' BIOGRAPHIES

Mary Levy          
Project Director, Public Education Reform Project
Mary_Levy@washlaw.org

Ms. Levy joined the Washington Lawyers' Committee in 1990, having been a partner at Rauh, Lichtman, Levy & Turner (formerly Rauh, Silard & Lichtman), where she did civil litigation in school finance, labor law, civil rights, and constitutional law. She has been a D.C. Public School activist since her children entered D.C. Public Schools in 1975, and has provided Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools with budget analysis, research and advocacy services since 1980.

"Education in the D.C. Public Schools must provide every student with the abilities and skills to qualify for the jobs and other opportunities opened up through our litigation against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.

Iris J. Toyer        
Project Director, D.C. Public School Partnerships Project
Iris_Toyer@washlaw.org

Ms. Toyer, the staff lawyer directing the D.C. Public School Partnerships Project, has been involved with the Committee's education work for over fifteen years. She received the Wiley A Branton, Sr., Award in l992 for achievements as a member of the D.C. Board of Education and as a founding member of Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools. She is a past president of the Washington Parent Group Fund and was a leading member of the blue ribbon panel of COPE (D.C. Committee on Public Education), which issued a comprehensive report on school reform in l988. In l986, Iris sponsored the D.C. Public School Initiative, which mandated public education as a matter of highest priority in the city. D.C. voters overwhelmingly passed it. Most recently Ms. Toyer serves as a member of the Steering Committee of D.C. VOICE.