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Bar News - September 20, 2002 Richard Cohen Named to Head Disabilities Rights Center Second Leader in 24-Year History NEW HAMPSHIRE BAR member Richard Cohen last month was named the executive director of the Disabilities Rights Center (DRC), the federally designated agency providing legal and advocacy services to New Hampshire's citizens with disabilities. Cohen, previously the organization's policy specialist, will be only the second executive director in the organization's 24-year history. "I look forward to the challenge of leading DRC and building on the achievements of my predecessor, Donna Woodfin," said Cohen. "We will continue to be driven by the most pressing issues faced by individuals with disabilities and will work collaboratively with self-advocates, family members, Bar members, and other stakeholders in the private and public sectors to achieve common missions and at the same time zealously pursue legal rights and remedies, wherever necessary and appropriate." Cohen has a long-standing commitment to the rights of individuals with disabilities and the state's poor. As an attorney with the Keene and Concord offices of New Hampshire Legal Assistance in the 1970s and '80s, he filed several landmark cases. One, Garrity vs. Gallen, resulted in the closure of the Laconia State School and the development of a community-based system of services for individuals with developmental disabilities. Another, Laaman vs. Helgemoe, required the state to make major improvements in conditions and services at the state prison in Concord. "I remember all too vividly the days and conditions of the Laconia State School and the old New Hampshire Hospital. Much has changed since then for all groups of people with disabilities, but much remains to be done to assure that all of New Hampshire's residents have the same opportunities to choose and lead the same productive quality lives that we all wish for ourselves and our children," said Cohen, who is married, a father of three children and grandfather of one. "Having litigated the State School suit more that 20 years ago, I find it disturbing and ironic that I am assuming leadership of the DRC at a time when we are compelled to sue the state for failing to serve hundreds of persons with developmental disabilities desperately in need of services." Cohen, after leaving NH Legal Assistance, was employed out of state as a federal and then state court monitor in class-wide disability cases in Minnesota and Massachusetts. He also served as director of investigations for the Massachusetts Department of Investigation, before returning to New Hampshire to join DRC. He has just completed a chapter on "Best Practices in Abuse and Neglect Reporting and Investigation," for a book, entitled Quality Enhancement in Developmental Disabilities: Challenges and Opportunities in a Changing Word. The book is scheduled for release this fall. "DRC is very fortunate to have Dick as its new director," said attorney John Kitchen, president of the DRC Board. "He brings tremendous energy, enthusiasm, experience and a fundamental sense of humanity and justice that should serve DRC and its clients well. He will certainly build upon Donna [Woodfin]'s accomplishments as well as those of DRC's fine staff." Woodfin will continue with DRC in a part-time capacity, in program development. To honor her accomplishments over the past 24 years, a Donna Woodfin-Disabilities Rights Center Scholarship Fund is being established for high school students with disabilities who overcome great obstacles in graduating from high school and gaining admission to college. Contributions may be made payable to the fund in care of DRC, PO Box 3660, Concord, NH 03302.
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