News & Commentary written by Zoe Brennan-Krohn

Zoe Brennan-Krohn is the Director of the ACLU’s Disability Rights Program, which works to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities and to advance their rights and liberties in all aspects of life.

A nationally recognized expert on disability rights issues, Brennan-Krohn serves as a prominent voice in creating public outrage demanding alternatives to guardianship (also known as conservatorship), which she accurately pins as a rights-stripping mechanism. She has led litigation challenging the systemic failure of prisons, parole, and probation systems to ensure effective communication for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. She has brought disability rights claims in a wide range of ACLU litigation including challenges to inaccessible aspects of the criminal legal system . She has also worked to protect the rights of parents with disabilities, holding the state accountable when it fails to provide legally required support before seeking to remove children from their care.

Brennan-Krohn received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School and is also a graduate of Brown University. Before going to college, she worked for two years at Camphill Ballytobin, an inclusive community in Ireland for people with and without disabilities. Before law school, Zoe was a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Zoe clerked for the Honorable Judith Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and for President Theodor Meron at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.