Please join us for "Stop the Shock: A Panel Discussion about the Judge Rotenberg Center” with members of the Stop the Shock Coalition.
Elisa Hunt
Driven by the loss of a loved one to institutional abuse, Elisa Hunt is an advocate and coalition leader specializing in institutional care accountability and disability rights. As the lead organizer of the Stop the Shock Coalition, she coordinates grassroots and national efforts to end the use of electric skin shock devices at the Judge Rotenberg Center. Elisa has volunteered for national survivor movements Unsilenced and Breaking Code Silence to reform the Troubled Teen Industry, helping pass the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act (SICAA). Today, she focuses on regional campaigns to secure lasting protections for vulnerable individuals.
Jennifer Msumba
Jennifer Msumba is an accomplished songwriter, musician and award-winning filmmaker. Jennifer's art brings both smiles and tears to audiences when unpacking difficult emotions or topics, like growing up with autism and OCD, and being institutionalized at the Judge Rotenberg Center where she received skin shocks as behavioral control. But you can leave it to Jen to find a shine of hope in every situation. Here are some details on Jennifer's Documentary: https://watch.eventive.org/heartlandfilmfestival/play/6a8caa0d26f98166f0238d0e. It becomes available on Oct 8th!
Jacob Levy
Jacob Levy is a young autistic self-advocate based in Massachusetts near the JRC. After hearing about the center at age 14, he became involved with efforts to shut down the JRC and joined the new Stop The Shock Coalition. He is passionate about helping to protect other young people from abusive treatment like what’s perpetuated at the JRC.”
Nancy Weiss, MSW
Nancy Weiss, MSW, is the Director Emeritus and co-founder of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities and co-founder of the Alliance for Citizen-Directed Support. She was a professor as well as the Director of Disability Initiatives at the University of Delaware. Prior to this, she was the Executive Director of TASH, an international advocacy association committed to full inclusion for people with disabilities and the Director of the Department for Community Services at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. She also served as the Executive Director of Community Systems, Inc., an agency providing progressive supports for adults with developmental disabilities across Delaware. Ms. Weiss is a contributing author, with Jan Nisbet, of the book, ‘Pain and Shock in America: Politics, Advocacy and the Controversial Treatment of People with Disabilities’ (Brandeis University Press, 2021), the first book to be published on the history of the Judge Rotenberg Center, a controversial facility that uses electric shock and other painful and dehumanizing methods to control the behavior of children and adults with disabilities. Ms. Weiss has spearheaded advocacy efforts nationally to eliminate the use of pain, coercion, and restraint as methods of behavior control for over 30 years. The consistent theme of her work has been the promotion of disability supports that assure that people are treated humanely and guaranteed the full range of rights and opportunities available to all citizens. (Contact Nancy Weiss at nancyrobinweiss@gmail.com)
Colbe Mazzarella
Colbe Mazzarella is an East Boston resident taking part in the Stop the Shock panel. She retired as a lawyer and volunteered for Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a watchdog for mental health abuse. Through CCHR she got involved with the coalition.
She learned how to free human beings from involuntary and illegal commitment into mental hospitals and became the president of CCHR New England, a watchdog against mental health abuse.
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