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This headshot of Vincenzo Piscopo shows him sitting behind his desk in his office. He has dark hair and eyes, is smiling and wearing a charcoal suit jacket, crisp white shirt and an orange tie.

Vincenzo Piscopo

CEO, United Spinal Association

Organizational Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT
Haben Girma, a Black woman wearing a red dress and pearl earrings, looks thoughtful.

Haben Girma

Human Rights Lawyer and Author

Co-Counsel for This Case

MEDIA KIT
Lillibeth Navarro, Filipina using a motorized wheelchair, wearing a red long-sleeved dress and black summer sandals. She wears her dark brown hair medium length and straight. She has red lipstick on, some make up on her Olive skin and purple sunglasses.

In Memorium: Lillibeth Navarro

Founder & Executive Director, Communities Actively Living Independent & Free
Organizational plaintiff

MEDIA KIT

 

Photo of Diane Coleman, a white woman wearing a red print top and sweater, smiling with gray bobbed hair, wire rimmed glasses and a nasal breathing mask.

Diane Coleman

President/CEO, Not Dead Yet

Organizational Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT
Head and shoulders photo of Anita Cameron, an African American woman with long dreadlocks and brown sweater.

Anita Cameron

Director of Minority Outreach, Not Dead Yet

Organizational Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT

Ingrid Tischer

Organizational Consultant & Blogger

Individual Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT
Matt Vallière, a white man wearing a red tie and jacket, looks professional.

Matt Vallière

Executive Director, Institute for Patients' Rights

Organizational Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT
This headshot shows a smiling James Weisman wearing a red polo-style shirt. He has short gray hair and a neatly-trimmed mustache and beard.

James Weisman

General Counsel, United Spinal Association

Organizational Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT

Jules Good

Assistant Director/Policy Analyst, Not Dead Yet

Organizational Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT
Lonnie VanHook smiling

Lonnie VanHook

CEO & Community Development Director,
My Wheels In Motion
Individual Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT
White man with a serious smile, salt and pepper hair and full beard, and blue eyes wearing a charcoal blazer, blue button down dress shirt, and a blue and red checked tie.

Michael Bien

Co-founding partner, Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld

Lead Counsel for this Case

MEDIA KIT

John Kelly

New England Regional Director, Not Dead Yet

Organizational Plaintiff

MEDIA KIT

Media Interviews

To set up a media interview, please contact Bill Pierce or Carl Whitaker

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Notable Press Coverage

Matt Vallière, a white man wearing a red tie and jacket, looks professional.
Matt Vallière

Institute for Patients' Rights
Executive Director

Matt Vallière is the Executive Director of the Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF), a national, secular, non-partisan leader defending the rights of patients, people with disabilities, our elders, and the poor from the threat of legalized assisted suicide. PRAF is a 501(c)(4) not for profit corporation.

Mr. Vallière was born in Worcester, MA, did his undergraduate work at Thomas Aquinas College in California, and earned a master’s in Philosophy at Boston College. He has owned and managed various private businesses and worked both professionally and voluntarily for non-profit causes, most currently with PRAF since 2014. He proudly serves as a volunteer emergency medical services first responder. As an experienced caregiver to people with life-threatening disabilities, Mr. Vallière is a tireless advocate for the rights of patients and people with disabilities, both in the medical setting and the public square. He has been published in media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, The Hill, Real Clear Politics, and Newsweek, among others.

He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and children.

Haben Girma is a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice. President Obama named her a White House Champion of Change. She received the Helen Keller Achievement Award, a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and TIME100 Talks. She believes disability is an opportunity for innovation, and she teaches organizations the importance of choosing inclusion. The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, and TODAY Show featured her memoir, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.

Haben Girma, a Black woman wearing a red dress and pearl earrings, looks thoughtful.
Haben Girma

Human Rights Lawyer

This headshot of Vincenzo Piscopo shows him sitting behind his desk in his office. He has dark hair and eyes, is smiling and wearing a charcoal suit jacket, crisp white shirt and an orange tie.
Vincenzo Piscopo

United Spinal
CEO

Vincenzo Piscopo is the President/CEO of United Spinal Association, the largest membership organization of people with spinal cord injuries and disorders in the United States. Prior to United Spinal, Vincenzo was part of The Coca Cola Company, where he founded This-Ability BRG, and promulgated the company’s first disability inclusion agenda. Vincenzo founded the Wheels of Happiness Foundation, assisting people with motor disabilities in developing nations. Additionally, he is a member of the board of directors of Respectability, FODAC (Friends of the Disabled Adults and Children), and the Shepherd Center. Vincenzo has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and a MA in Creativity from Buffalo State College.

Lillibeth Navarro, Founder & Executive Director of CALIF, the independent living center serving the 50 zip codes of Los Angeles currently serves on the Personal Assistance Services Council (PASC) as officer-at-large and part of the Executive Committee.  In 2009, the CA Speaker of the House, Karen Bass appointed her to the California Commission on Disability Access where she was appointed Chair of the Accessibility Enhancement Committee. Her appointment was confirmed by Assembly Speaker John Perez in January 2011.
Lillibeth Navaro, a Hispanic woman in a wheelchair wearing a white outfit and long necklace, looks happy.
Lillibeth Navarro

CALIF Founder & Executive Director

Photo of Diane Coleman, a white woman wearing a red print top and sweater, smiling with gray bobbed hair, wire rimmed glasses and a nasal breathing mask.
Diane Coleman

Not Dead Yet
President, CEO

Diane Coleman is the President and CEO of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group which she founded in 1996 to give voice to disability rights opposition to legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Prior to that, she served for three years as Director of Advocacy at the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester, New York and twelve years as Executive Director of Progress Center for Independent Living in Forest Park, Illinois. Ms. Coleman has presented invited testimony four times before Subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. She is a well-known writer and speaker on assisted suicide and euthanasia, and has appeared on national television news broadcasts for Nightline, CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC and others, as well as National Public Radio. She co-authored Amicus Briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court and various state courts on behalf of Not Dead Yet and other national disability organizations on the topics of assisted suicide and surrogate health care decision making. She has a law degree and Masters in Business Administration from UCLA. From 2003 to 2008, she was a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co- taught two graduate courses in disability and medical ethics. Ms. Coleman is a person with neuromuscular disabilities who has used a motorized wheelchair since the age of eleven.

Ingrid Tischer (White, she/her) is an organizational consultant and coach specializing in work-disability balance for disabled/aging/chronically ill workers and family caregivers. She was a Bay Area–based “accidental” fundraiser and non–profit manager for 30 years, beginning in a women’s free clinic on Haight Street, before moving on to Breast Cancer Action, Equal Rights Advocates, and Legal Aid at Work. For10 years, she served as the Development Director for Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), and worked to redirect philanthropy’s culture of compliance toward an equity-based culture of access. Her media advocacy includes working with the Labor Project for Working Families, MomsRising and The Impact Fund, 

Her blog Tales From the Crip explores the emotional landscape of disability and systemic ableism that also informs her long-time activism on assisted suicide legislation. She lives with muscular dystrophy, respiratory insufficiency, and depression.

Ingrid Tischer

Organizational Consultant

This headshot shows a smiling James Weisman wearing a red polo-style shirt. He has short gray hair and a neatly-trimmed mustache and beard.
James Weisman

United Spinal
General Councel

James Weisman is now General Counsel of United Spinal Association, after years of service as President/CEO. He joined United Spinal, then called Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, as an attorney in 1979. Years before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Weisman sued New York City’s transit system and won bus access, key subway and rail station access and the creation of a paratransit program. His lawsuit against Philadelphia’s transit system yielded similar results by 1988. Weisman was a key negotiator for the passage of the ADA, which applied his New York and Philadelphia agreements to the whole country. His suit against New York for curb ramps has resulted in a $400 million expenditure and over $1 billion during the next ten years. United Spinal, led by Weisman, successfully got an agreement from New York to make 50% of its yellow cabs accessible by 2020. He is a 1977 graduate of Seton Hall University Law School and a founding board member of the American Association of People with Disabilities.
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