Practitioner-in-Residence

In continuation of the Center's Tradition of pioneering programs, the Center holds an annual Practitioner-in-Residence Program. A visiting health law attorney is hosted by the Center for one to three months at the School of Law. The attorney has the opportunity to reflect on the practice of law and refresh his or her perspective while offering students and faculty insight into the realities of the practice of health law. In past years, the Practitioner has assumed numerous roles, including taking time to write articles, serving as a guest lecturer in health law classes, presenting timely issues to local health law attorneys, holding student roundtables, and meeting with health law faculty to discuss issues relevant to both academia and practice.

Susan Stefan
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Staff Attorney, Center for Public Representation and Director of the Center’s Emergency Department Project

Susan Stefan is a staff attorney at the Center for Public Representation in Newton, Mass., where she directs the Center’s Emergency Department Project. She represents people with psychiatric disabilities in system reform litigation and has written three books and numerous articles about legal and policy issues involving people with psychiatric disabilities. Her most recent book is Emergency Department Treatment of People with Psychiatric Disabilities: Policy Issues and Legal Requirements (Oxford University Press, 2006). She served as an expert consultant to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) and to the Institute of Medicine for its publication, “Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance Use Conditions” (2005).

Prior to working for the Center for Public Representation, Stefan was a law professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where she taught disability law and mental health law and litigated a number of cases applying the Americans with Disabilities Act to the rights of people with psychiatric disabilities. She has received numerous advocacy and teaching awards and has testified as an expert witness in several federal court cases. She graduated from Stanford Law School in 1984, received a master’s degree from Cambridge University in England in 1981 and graduated from Princeton University in 1980.

2007-2008 Practitioner in Residence Timothy P. Blanchard
2006-2007 Practitioner in Residence Malcolm J. Harkins, III
2005-2006 Practitioner in Residence Vence Bonham
2004-2005 Practitioner in Residence Cliff Barnes
2002-2003 Practitioner in Residence Beth Schermer