2027 DSALA Annual Conference

Join The Coelho Center on April 3, 2027, for our 3rd annual DSALA Conference

Without Us: Care Workers, Dependency, and Disability Rights

The Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy, and Innovation

April 3, 2027

In person in Los Angeles, CA | CFP Below

Featuring our keynote speaker: Nicole Jorwic, Caring Across Generations

Photo of Nicole Jorwic - a picture of a woman with long brown hair and a burnt orange shirt under a white cardigan.

Nicole Jorwic is an experienced policy professional advancing caregiving, disability, aging, and direct care workforce policy and mobilization. She currently serves as Chief Program Officer for Caring Across Generations.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Jorwic served as an Independent Reviewer in the Lane v. Brown Olmstead enforcement case in Oregon, and was Senior Director of Public Policy and Senior Executive Officer of State Advocacy at The Arc of the United States. Before coming to DC to work on federal Medicaid and healthcare advocacy, she served as Senior Policy Advisor and Manager of the Employment First Initiative in Illinois, and prior to that was CEO/President of the Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities. Ms. Jorwic is also an accomplished special education attorney.

She leads and supports numerous coalitions advancing the priorities of the care movement, including strengthening and expanding access to child care, paid leave, Medicaid, home and community-based care, Medicare, and better pay for direct care workers, and has worked with colleagues to ensure long-term care is included in healthcare proposals. Ms. Jorwic is a former member of the President's Committee on People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Most importantly, Ms. Jorwic is a sibling to her brother Chris, who is 36 and has autism, a former direct care worker, and part of the care team for her three grandparents in their 90s.

Call for proposals (CFP):

The Coelho Center welcomes submissions for our third annual Disability Studies and Advocacy in Los Angeles (DSALA) Conference on April 3, 2027. This year’s theme is: Without Us: Care Workers, Dependency, and Disability Rights.

The disability rights movement has transformed law, policy, and public life in pursuit of dignity, equality, and better lives for people with disabilities. For many disabled people, safe and dignified care and support are an essential part of that work. Care workers often face low wages, inadequate public funding, workforce shortages, and inequalities shaped by race, gender, and immigration status. Yet the rights, working conditions, and dignity of care workers are rarely treated as disability rights issues, even though the lives and well-being of disabled people and care workers are deeply connected.

This conference invites disabled people, care workers, family caregivers, advocates, scholars, attorneys, policymakers, service providers, students, artists, and community members to explore the complicated relationships among care, dependency, and disability rights.

For the full CFP and to submit: click here.