Announcing Laurie Bertram Roberts as the Inaugural Carrie Buck Fellow
The fellowship, funded by the Ford Foundation, is intended for activists, scholars, and community organizers with disabilities whose work draws national attention to systemic ableism in reproductive health policy.
Laurie Bertram Roberts (she/they) is a low-income, black, queer, disabled grassroots reproductive justice activist, freelance writer, doula, aspiring midwife, and mother.
Lurie Researcher Robyn Powell Receives Award for Excellence
At the American Public Health Association's annual conference, Robyn Powell was recognized for her work with the Early Career Award for Excellence in Public Health Law. The APHA Law Section gives the Early Career Award annually "to an individual who demonstrates great promise as a future leader in the field of public health law."
Powell's work focuses especially on the intersection of disability and reproductive justice.
Alex Green Joins the Lurie Institute Team
We are excited to welcome Alex Green to the Lurie Institute.
Alex Green joins the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at the Brandeis University Heller School for Social Policy as a visiting research scholar. Green’s research focuses on the history of institutionalization in the United States with a specific focus on public institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He is the author of landmark legislation in 2022 that will create a disability-led state commission in Massachusetts exploring the history of institutionalization and providing a public framework for reckoning with its legacy in the state. He is currently writing a biography of Walter Elmore Fernald, a seminal figure in the history of disability and special education (Bellevue Literary Press, 2025).
From 2017–2020 Green was the co-creator of a nationally recognized project-based community-focused high school disability history curriculum at Gann Academy in Waltham, Massachusetts. In 2021–22 he led the creation of the first graduate course in disability policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and serves on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School, where he received the 2022 Manuel C. Carballo Award for excellence in teaching. Green holds a BA from Brandeis University and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Announcing the Establishment of the Community Living Equity Center
The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy is thrilled to announce the establishment of its fourth federally funded research center, the Community Living Equity Center.
Announcing the Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship
The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy announces its inaugural Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship. Funded by the Ford Foundation, the Fellowship is intended for activists, scholars, and community organizers with disabilities whose work draws national attention to systemic ableism in reproductive health policy.
Lurie Institute Researcher Robyn Powell Authors Timely Analysis on Disabled People's Need for Abortion Rights
![Photograph of US Supreme Court next to a quotation by Robyn M. Powell: "[I]t is actual disabled people — not hypothetical fetuses with disability diagnoses — who abortion restrictions will harm."](../images/news/dobbs-abortion-access-web.png)
Lurie Institute researcher Robyn Powell's timely analysis, "Including disabled people in the battle to protect abortion rights: A call-to-action," will be published by UCLA Law Review.
2021–2022 Lurie Institute Undergraduate Fellows' Research Presentations
Our 2021–2022 Lurie Institute undergraduate fellows completed their fellowships with compelling research presentations on May 5, 2022.
Annual Report for 2021 Now Available
The Lurie Institute for Disability Policy is happy to announce the release of its annual report for 2021. The report describes details of our work at the Lurie Institute and its centers: the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities, the Community Living Policy Center, and the new National Center for Disability and Pregnancy Research.
Learn about our research, education, and community activities over the past year. The annual report is available in a screen-reader accessible, text-only version as well as a visual version.
Lurie Institute Director Granted Tenure
The Lurie Institute congratulates our director, Monika Mitra, who has been granted tenure by the Brandeis University Board of Trustees.
Mitra was among three faculty members at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management to receive this honor. As the Heller School statement describes, Mitra and the other two recipients "represent academic excellence and innovative research in several key social policy areas, including U.S. health policy, disability policy and peacebuilding and conflict resolution. This important designation recognizes their many significant contributions to the university and to their fields."
Marty Krauss, In Memoriam
Lurie Institute and Center for Parents Receive New Grants
The Lurie Institute is thrilled to announce new federal funding for research at Lurie and at Lurie's centers, including a grant supporting the new Center for Disability and Pregnancy Research.
The Lurie Institute has been awarded a four-year grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The research will examine disparities in care and outcomes before, during, and after pregnancy among Black women and Latinas with physical disabilities.
Learn more about the Lurie Institute's NIH-funded research...
The Lurie Institute has also received a three-year grant from the Administration for Community Living's National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. The grant—under the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects Program—will support Lurie's crucial research on disability and pregnancy, in particular, by helping support the work of our new center, the Center for Disability and Pregnancy Research.
Learn more about the Center for Disability & Pregnancy Research NIDILRR-funded research...
The Research Center for Parents with Disabilities has been awarded a grant under the DRRP Program at NIDILRR. The Center has received a five-year grant for the purposes of identifying, developing, testing, and evaluating interventions that provide support to parents with disabilities in their capacity as a parent and that provide support to their family. The Research Center for Parents with Disabilities will also translate and communicate the knowledge it gains through such avenues as trainings and technical assistance.
Learn more about the Research Center for Parents with Disabilities's NIDILLR-funded research...