Project Staff

kate Divasto

EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS FELLOW SPONSORED BY Dell and Baker Botts LLP/STAFF COUNSEL

Ms. DiVasto joined the EdLaw Project in September of 2021. Kate joins us as an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by Dell and Baker Botts LLP. Her fellowship is focused on enhancing access to tailored educational, vocational, and daily living skills services for young people facing DCF involvement and the transition out of high school into adult life. Kate will be providing these students with direct representation in special education law and school discipline cases. She received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Harvard College.

ELIZABETH LEVITAN

STAFF COUNSEL

Ms. Levitan started with the EdLaw Project as a Skadden Fellow in September 2017. Prior to law school Ms. Levitan ran a high school transition program for "at-risk" youth in north Philadelphia. During law school she founded the Penn Law Youth Advocacy Project, which provided mitigation and reentry support to young people being charged in the adult criminal justice system, and interned with the Committee for Public Counsel’s Youth Advocacy and Children and Family Law Divisions. Ms. Levitan's role as a Skadden Fellow with EdLaw consists of providing young people involved in the juvenile delinquency system with post-disposition representation on matters such as school discipline, academic failure, and undetected specials needs. She earned her J.D. from University of Pennsylvania Law School and her B.A. from Haverford College.

Elizabeth McIntyre

Senior COUNSEL

Ms. McIntyre joined the EdLaw Project in October 2021 as Senior Counsel. Prior to joining the EdLaw Project, Ms. McIntyre was a senior attorney for Greater Boston Legal Services’ School to Prison Pipeline Intervention Project, a project she began in 2014 with an Equal Justice Works Fellowship. Since its inception, the Project represented over 800 students of color in school discipline, special education, and equity cases in greater Boston. Ms. McIntyre provides legal support and representation to student organizers, and collaborates with organizations across the state to engage in systemic education policy advocacy and litigation. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism and Boston University School of Law, and is the recipient of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Pro Bono Publico Award, the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Top Women of Law Leadership Award, and Boston University Law School’s Community Service Award.

ERIN HEHN O’SULLIVAN

SENIOR COUNSEL

Ms. O’Sullivan started with the EdLaw Project in April 2017.  Prior to coming to EdLaw, Ms. O’Sullivan was a Staff Attorney at the Disability Law Center where she represented people with disabilities in a variety of matters but focusing on special education.  She also conducted special education trainings, investigations of abuse and neglect of students with disabilities, and monitored community residences for clients of DDS.  Prior to working at the Disability Law Center, Ms. O’Sullivan worked as a Trial Attorney at the Children and Family Law (CAFL) Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Worcester.  While at CAFL, she represented children and parents involved in the juvenile court either through the child welfare system or through Child Requiring Assistance (CRA) Petitions.  She earned her J.D. from Villanova University School of Law and her B.A. from College of the Holy Cross.

Michele Scavongelli

Senior Counsel

Ms. Scavongelli joined the EdLaw Project as an Equal Justice Works Fellow in September 2012, continued on as Senior Counsel and became Deputy Director of the Youth Advocacy Foundation in October 2018. Michele has successfully represented over two hundred families in the past seven years in both school discipline and special education matters.  She oversees the pro bono panel for The EdLaw Project and has trained hundreds of delinquency, child welfare, firm, and in-house counsel, as well as parent and community groups in special education advocacy and school discipline rights.  Michele graduated Northeastern University School of Law in 2012. During law school, Ms. Scavongelli was a recipient of a Rappaport Fellowship at the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate and a recipient of a Hennessey Fellowship at the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee. She interned at the Lowell Juvenile Court as well as at the law firm of Kotin, Crabtree & Strong, LLP with a particular focus on special education law. She has served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and as a Special Education Surrogate Parent. Prior to attending law school she spent 29 years as an executive in the life insurance industry. She earned her S.B. in Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979.

Tim Sindelar

Senior Counsel

Mr. Sindelar joined the EdLaw Project on January 1, 2022. Tim had been a public interest attorney in Nebraska, West Virginia, and Massachusetts before setting up a private practice in Newton for families and children with special education and other disability-related legal needs. Tim brings over 40 years of experience in education matters to his work at the EdLaw Project.

MARLIES SPANJAARD

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION ADVOCACY

Ms. Spanjaard is responsible for supervising staff attorneys and interns, making program-wide policy decisions, and cultivating relationships with other individuals and agencies in an effort to promote the Edlaw Project mission. Prior to serving as Director, Ms. Spanjaard gained valuable experience as a staff attorney on the EdLaw Project during which time she represented students in school disciplinary hearings, special education team meetings, and administrative hearings before the Bureau of Special Education Appeals. Marlies has provided trainings on education related issues throughout the state and before a wide variety of audiences including parents, youth workers, students and attorneys. In 2007, Marlies began teaching at Wheelock College as an adjunct instructor in the college’s Juvenile Justice and Youth Advocacy Concentration. She earned her J.D. and her M.S.W. at Washington University Law School and George Warren Brown School of Social Work in St. Louis, MO.