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DEI Spotlight: Morgayne Mulkern, Institute for Human Centered Design

Thursday, July 11, 2024
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Morgayne Mulkern

Each month, the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee (DEIC) will be highlighting diverse attorneys from within our community on the DEIC web page to recognize their achievements and contributions. This July, when we observe Disability Pride Month, the DEIC is proud to shine a light on Morgayne Mulkern of the Institute for Human Centered Design .

As a woman who is blind, Morgayne Mulkern has faced discrimination in many forms in her life: teachers told her that she could not be in their classroom because they did not know how to teach a blind student, coaches doubted her ability to participate in sports, and landlords told her that because she had a guide dog, she could not rent an apartment unit in their building. She learned the importance of advocacy from a young age. Civil rights mean very little if they cannot be enforced. This is why she has dedicated her career to civil rights work and protecting the rights of people with disabilities. 

Mulkern graduated from Suffolk University Law School in 2018 and has dedicated her legal career to civil rights and social justice. Mulkern currently works for the Institute for Human Centered Design as its the Americans with Disabilities Act trainer, information and outreach coordinator. She recognizes the need for greater education and outreach, to achieve increased compliance, and to improve lived experiences for people with disabilities. She understands the role of the Americans with Disabilities Act in protecting the rights of people with disabilities. 

Mulkern began her career as a fair housing investigator for the city of Boston and as a testing coordinator for Suffolk University Law School’s Housing Discrimination Testing Program. She investigated the rental housing market to determine if housing discrimination had occurred. She specialized in the Massachusetts lead law and source of income-based housing discrimination along with state and federal fair housing laws. She also trained public housing authority staff and first-time homebuyers throughout the state on the importance of fair housing and how to prevent and address housing discrimination. 

Mulkern currently serves as the chair of the MBA’s Civil Rights & Social Justice Section Council, for which she also served as the vice chair in the prior term. This section council is devoted to initiatives to address inequality and injustice. The council has worked on and continues to strive to address police misconduct, advocates for affirmative action, and promotes the ongoing efforts of the innocence project, election protection, and access to safe voting.