Judith E. Klein is a human rights lawyer who founded and directed the Mental Health Initiative at the Open Society Foundations beginning in 1995. The Mental Health Initiative focused on ending the unjustified and inappropriate institutionalization of people with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities by advocating for the development of community-based alternatives, and for deinstitutionalization. For the past 22 years, Klein has pioneered the development and replication of innovative community-based support and services models that allow people to live dignified lives, as equal citizens, in their local communities.
Having been a tireless advocate for social and economic |
inclusion at the Open Society Foundations, Klein is now leading INclude – The Mental Health Initiative, an independent nonprofit. INclude builds on Klein’s 22 years of work. INclude will work with partners to seek systemic means of achieving sustainable social and economic inclusion for people with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities.Prior to working at the Foundations, Klein, a member of the state bar associations of Florida and Michigan, litigated on behalf of people with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities in the United States. Klein has a BA in Justice from the American University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Miami.
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