NAD Says Farewell to Crawford, Announces Staff Attorney Vacancy

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) thanks Rosaline Crawford, director of the NAD Law and Advocacy Center, for her years of dedicated service and wishes her well upon her departure from the NAD on December 31, 2010. Rosaline expects to begin working in January 2011 as an attorney advisor at the Federal Communications Commission, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, Disability Rights Office.
 
Rosaline has been advocating on behalf of her daughter and other children who are deaf or hard of hearing for 20 years. She joined the NAD Law and Advocacy Center as a staff attorney in 2002 after obtaining her law degree from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law.  During her early years at the NAD, she focused on consumer education, advocacy, and litigation. In 2006, she became the director of the NAD Law and Advocacy Center, overseeing its education, advocacy, and litigation activities, and assuming responsibility for its coalition, government affairs, and public policy activities.  Rosaline is a well respected advocate with expertise in civil rights and accessibility in the areas of captioning, early intervention, education, emergency preparedness, employment, health care, the judicial system, relay services, technology, telecommunications, transportation, and more.

In 2007, the NAD co-founded and Rosaline has since served on the steering committee of the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), a coalition of over 300 national, state, and community-based organizations.  COAT was instrumental in achieving passage of the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-260). 

The NAD wishes Rosaline well in her future endeavors, confident that she will continue to work towards greater communication access for people with disabilities.

The NAD seeks a full-time staff attorney to work on policy issues. We invite qualified applicants to review the position announcement below.

Position Announcement
STAFF ATTORNEY - POLICY
National Association of the Deaf

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD), as the nation’s oldest and largest consumer organization safeguarding the civil, human and linguistic of deaf and hard of hearing Americans invites applications for a staff attorney position with its NAD Law & Advocacy Center. This staff attorney position will focus primarily on policy issues with a secondary focus on litigation.

The principal mission of the NAD Law & Advocacy Center is to represent the NAD across a broad range of civil rights and discrimination issues including education, early intervention, employment, healthcare, rehabilitation, technology, telecommunications as well as access to public entities and accommodations.

Key Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Staff Attorney - Policy include, but are not limited to:

• Document positions on important issues where they are known and develops positions where these are not yet known, working closely with management.
• Provide legal opinions and counsel on policy issues.
• Conduct research and analysis of specific legal and policy questions and prepare memoranda, opinions, and position statements as necessary.
• Keep abreast of the latest trends affecting the deaf and hard of hearing civil, human and linguistic rights and advises the management team and community with regard to these trends.
• Coordinate with other organizations and individuals to advance NAD interests in support of its mission, vision, values, and strategic goals.
• Interface with government agencies, Congress, coalitions, media, and businesses as requested by the CEO and COO.
• Identify and pursue opportunities for Center growth through grants and other funding.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Experience and Qualifications
 
Applicants must possess the following:

• Demonstrated commitment to and knowledge of issues related to the advancement of the civil, human and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing individuals.
• Knowledge of federal legislative and government policy issues that impact deaf and hard of hearing individuals.
• Excellent research skills and strong analytic capabilities, demonstrated ability to analyze legislative and administrative policy.
• Strong working knowledge of constitutional issues, including legislative, regulatory, and policy-making processes and other issues involving civil liberties and civil rights.
• Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.
• Significant legal and policy experience preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work independently, as well as within a team.
• Fluency in American Sign Language (ASL) required.

The NAD, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization, offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits package and flexible work environment. Salary is commensurate with experience.

Deadline: January 30, 2011

Applicant cover letter, resume, three references and three writing samples must be received at the NAD no later than 12:00 pm Eastern Time on January 30, 2011. Materials should be sent to the attention of Shane H. Feldman, Chief Operating Officer, National Association of the Deaf, 8630 Fenton Street, Suite 820, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3819.

The NAD is an EEO/AA employer. No telephone calls or emails. For more information about the NAD, visit www.nad.org [2].