Carrie Basas
Executive Director
Carrie Griffin Basas (she/her or they/them) joined Disability Rights Washington as the Executive Director in August 2023. Prior to DRW, she led Disability Law Colorado. Carrie is a former civil rights and labor law attorney. For many years, she was a law professor, specializing in disability rights, employment law, criminal justice, and ethics. She has taught at the University of North Carolina, Penn State University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Tulsa, and Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. In 2014, Carrie returned to graduate school to attain a MEd in Education Policy, Organizations, and Leadership from the University of Washington. From 2015 to 2022, she was the Director of the Washington State Governor’s Office of the Education Ombuds. Carrie is also a graduate of Swarthmore College (B.A. with Honors) and Harvard Law School (Juris Doctorate).
Carrie identifies passionately with the work of Disability Rights Washington as a disabled person, mother of a disabled high schooler, and first-generation college graduate. Carrie has served as an advisor to the National Association of Law Students with Disabilities, a Commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, and a board member for nonprofits and foundations focused on human rights, gender justice, and youth success. As part of her desire to merge research and practice, she published a book of mentoring advice (“Lawyers, Lead On”) from the current generation of lawyers with disabilities to the next generation. She has also published extensively on issues of accessibility, incarceration, health stigma, advocacy fatigue, and racial justice.