Â鶹ÉçÇø

Carrie Griffin Basas, J.D., M.Ed., is an Acting Associate Professor at the University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law and directs the Children and Youth Legislative Advocacy Clinic. Her teaching and scholarship focus on disability rights, civil rights, and the intersections of law, policy, design thinking, and equity in education and youth justice.

Professor Basas has held faculty appointments at Penn State–Dickinson, the University of Tulsa, the University of North Carolina, and Case Western Reserve University, and she has served as a visiting researcher at the University of Virginia and Harvard Law School. Beyond academia, she has been a civil rights attorney, nonprofit leader, and public-sector executive. Most recently, she served as Executive Director of Disability Rights Washington and Disability Law Colorado, and previously as Director of the Washington State Governor’s Office of the Education Ombuds, where she advanced access and opportunity for over one million students statewide and served on Governor Inslee’s small cabinet.

She is the founder of Justice Studio, a law and strategy practice serving nonprofits and foundations, and CoDesign Works, a consulting firm focused on accessibility, organizational development, and youth-centered policy change. Her research and policy work have informed state and national strategies on disability justice, language access, and educational equity.

A graduate of Swarthmore College (B.A. with Honors), Harvard Law School (J.D.), and the University of Washington (M.Ed.), Professor Basas has published widely on disability law, employment, health equity, and governance. She is the co-editor of Lawyers, Lead On: Lawyers with Disabilities Share Their Insights (ABA Press, 2011) and the author of numerous law review articles. She is also an attorney in good standing with the Washington State Bar.