Kathryn Tucker Now at Disability Rights Legal Center

The Disability Rights Legal Center part of the Public Interest Law Center of Loyola Law School Los Angeles has announced Kathryn L. Tucker, Esq., as its new Executive Director and Director of Advocacy and Legal Affairs.  



Tucker joins DRLC from the national nonprofit organization Compassion & Choices, where she worked to improve patient rights and choice at the end of life as Director of Advocacy and Legal Affairs for two decades.  



Tucker also served as lead counsel in two landmark end of life care cases before the United States Supreme Court, which established the right of dying patients to aggressive pain management. Her work has furthered the rights of patients in many states to better end of life care. She helped successfully defend Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and was instrumental in successful campaigns to pass similar laws in other states.



Tucker has held a faculty appointment at Loyola for a number of years, teaching "Law, Medicine and Ethics at the End of Life.”  Her new position will enable her to continue work on behalf of patients with serious illness, as DRLC  includes the Cancer Legal Resource Center and the HIV Law and Policy Project.



Given the historic tension between end of life choice advocates and much of the Disability Advocacy community, the DRLC Board's selection of Tucker is impressive and commendable.  It is also smart.  Tucker has two decades of experience in moving a multidimensional advocacy agenda forward for a social change movement.  Her work involved state and federal impact litigation as well as state and federal legislative work. She is known for creative aggressive advocacy and achieving outstanding results. Selecting her as Executive Director, positions DRLC to be a leader in the Disability community.