Jennifer Mathis
Deputy Legal Director and Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Jennifer Mathis is Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. The Center is a national non-profit legal advocacy organization that advances the rights of people with mental disabilities. Jennifer’s work focuses primarily on the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) and the Medicaid rights of adults and children with disabilities. Jennifer uses litigation as well as legislative and administrative policy advocacy to promote equal opportunity for people with disabilities in all areas of life, including community living, health care, housing, employment, education, parental and family rights, voting, and other areas. Jennifer played a key role in coordinating strategy and briefing when the Olmstead case was heard by the Supreme Court, and has litigated numerous community integration cases before and after. She also served on the team of disability community representatives in the negotiations with the business community that became the basis for the ADA Amendments Act. She has been at the Bazelon Center since 1999, with the exception of one year during which she left to work as a Special Assistant to Commissioner Chai Feldblum at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, helping to draft regulations implementing the ADA Amendments Act and the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act.