Staff

Cathy Costanzo became the Executive Director of the Center for Public Representation in September 2011. She has worked in the mental disability law field since 1977 and has extensive experience in providing representation to institutionalized persons throughout the country and for litigating ADA/Olmstead cases. She is the former director of the Massachusetts PAIMI Project and the former chair of National Disability Rights Network’s Legal Committee. Ms. Costanzo is co-counsel in a number of class action cases in New Mexico, Massachusetts, Oregon and Ohio which seek to promote the integration and to expand the rights of persons with psychiatric and developmental disabilities.  Ms. Costanzo is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College with B.A. in Psychology and earned law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Morgan K. Whitlatch is the Director of Supported Decision-Making Initiatives at the Center for Public Representation (CPR), where, she develops and implements strategies to advance the decision-making rights of people with disabilities at the state, national, and international levels.  Prior to joining CPR in October 2021, Morgan was the longtime legal director and attorney at Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities, where she planned and implemented legal advocacy, legislative, and systemic initiatives involving guardianship and alternatives, legal capacity, community integration, and anti-discrimination.  In addition, she served as the Lead Project Director of the National Resource Center for Supported Decision-Making (SDM), an advocacy and education center that is dedicated to advancing less restrictive, community inclusive alternatives to guardianship.  Morgan is also a former attorney of the protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities in Rhode Island and a graduate of Georgetown Law School and Wesleyan University.  She has published and contributed to numerous articles and national reports and presented hundreds of trainings and webinars, mainly on SDM within the context of life events involving health care, education, transition-age youth, and older adults. She also testified about the need for guardianship reform and promotion of SDM at a September 2021 hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Megan Rusciano is an attorney with the Center for Representation (CPR) where she works, in part, on the CPR’s Supported Decision-Making (SDM) Initiatives. Megan has spent her legal career working alongside people with disabilities to advance their civil rights and amplify their voices.   Prior to joining CPR, Megan was a Senior Staff Attorney with The Arc of the United States. Megan also spent over five years working at Disability Rights Maryland, Maryland’s protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities, where she was the Managing Attorney of the Developmental Disabilities, Health Care, and Victims of Crime Act Team. In that role, she directed the team’s work and was a key partner in Maryland’s law reform to recognize SDM as an alternative to guardianship and in efforts to reform Maryland’s Rule of Professional Conduct for Attorneys who represent clients with diminished capacity. Megan’s passion for SDM and alternatives to guardianship stems both from personal experiences and her time as an intern at Nidus Personal Planning and Resource Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she had the opportunity to learn firsthand about its innovative approach to SDM. She regularly presents nationally and publishes articles on alternatives to guardianship, SDM, and restoration of rights.