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2008 Keynote Speakers
Thomas K. Gilhool
 A graduate of Lehigh University, Yale University and Yale Law School, Mr. Gilhool joined the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP) in 1975 where he concentrated his practice in disabilities rights and early childhood development, including state-of-the-art educational practices and children's health care. He worked at PILCOP until 1986 when he left to serve Governor Robert P. Casey as the first Philadelphian in the history of the Commonwealth to be appointed Secretary of Education. Mr. Gilhool is a nationally recognized leader in the disabilities rights movement. He is credited with the rise of community services for people with developmental disabilities and was a major player in the passage of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Mr. Gilhool represented the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children in PARC v. Pennsylvania. This case was pivotal in establishing the Constitutional right of children with disabilities to a public education and led to the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Mr. Gilhool was lead counsel in Halderman v. Pennhurst, a critical case that both initiated and fueled the national movement for the de-institutionalization of persons with disabilities. In addition, Mr. Gilhool was lead counsel in Scott v. Snider, the Pennsylvania case to enforce Title XIX Medicaid statutes that tripled the number of eligible children enrolled in the program from 300,000 to 900,000. In 1991, Mr. Gilhool received the Philadelphia Bar Association's Obermeyer Award for service to education and in 2002 he was honored by the American Academy of Pediatrics with its President's Award for Outstanding Service. Mr. Gilhool spent 2003-04 on a Fulbright scholarship in Japan and wrote comparatively about the legal and non-legal strategies used to advance the rights of persons with disabilities.
Daniel J. Losen
Mr. Losen is a Senior Education Law and Policy Associate with The Civil Rights Project (CRP) and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. His work at CRP concerns the impact of federal, state and local education law and policy on students of color. His most recent efforts have focused on addressing the school to prison pipeline, and implementation concerns about the No Child Left Behind Act. Mr. Losen's related written work includes: "Graduation Rate Accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act and the Disparate Impact on Students of Color," a chapter in the book, "Dropouts in America: Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis;" a law review article, "Challenging Racial Disparities: The Promise and Pitfalls of the No Child Left Behind Act's Race-conscious Accountability;" and, "Losing Our Future, How Minority Youth Are Being Left Behind By The Graduation Rate Crisis," released jointly in 2004 with the Urban Institute and Advocates for Children of New York. Other written work includes: "Racial Inequity in Special Education," co-edited with Gary Orfield and "The Role of Law in Policing Abusive Disciplinary Practices: Why School Discipline is a Civil Rights Issue," a chapter co-authored with Christopher Edley, Jr., in "Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive For Punishment in Our Schools." Upon graduating law school, Mr. Losen practiced education law for economically disadvantaged students as a legal services advocate in Massachusetts. Before becoming a lawyer, Mr. Losen taught in public schools for ten years, including work as a school founder of an alternative public school.
Judith A. Gran
 Ms. Gran is a cum laude graduate of Temple University School of Law where she was a staff member of the Temple Law Quarterly. She holds an A.B. with honors from Wellesley College and an A.M. from the University of Chicago in political science. She was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship for research in Egypt and she was a National Defense Title IV and Title VI fellow. Ms. Gran joined the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP) in 1984. Ms. Gran has devoted her legal career to representing persons with disabilities and their organizations in litigation, providing training, technical assistance and counseling. She has represented thousands of students with disabilities and their parents in due process hearings and cases arising under IDEA and Section 504 in federal court around the country, including individual and class action cases in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri and Oklahoma. Ms. Gran was lead counsel in Gaskin v. Commonwealth, PILCOP's groundbreaking class action against Pennsylvania education officials brought on behalf of a coalition of eleven state and local organizations, a class of 280,000 special education students, and twelve named plaintiffs, which ended in an historic settlement in 2005 that created detailed protocols for carrying out the mandates of the IDEA in Pennsylvania. An authority on the movement of individuals with developmental disabilities from institutions to community-based residences, Ms. Gran has represented institutionalized persons in class action suits in Pennsylvania, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
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