WASHINGTON, August 15, 2013—Today the Equal Rights Center (ERC) —a national non-profit civil rights organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., announced the appointment of Kristen Barry as the Testing and Special Projects Program Manager and Sarah Pauly as the Fair Employment Program Manager.

In her role as the Testing and Special Projects Program Manager, Kristen Barry will oversee the design and implementation of civil rights testing investigations and the agency-wide coordination of testing, and assist with the development of Special Projects Initiatives involving the investigation of individual complaints and systemic discrimination.

Barry, formerly the Disability Rights Program Coordinator at the ERC, has substantial experience working with persons with disabilities, both through her personal experiences, and having served as a student attorney at the AU Disability Rights Law Clinic (where she worked on a major ADA project for the ERC), and as an intern for the Department of Health and Human Services. Barry holds a law degree from American University College of Law, as well as a Bachelor’s degree with honors from Emmanuel College in Boston.

In her role as the Fair Employment Program Manager, Sarah Pauly will design and implement investigations of civil rights abuses throughout the country and helps craft appropriate responses, such as implementing trainings, enforcement actions, or policy changes. Pauly will also manage the ERC’s employment discrimination intakes and recruit, train, and supervise ERC’s civil rights testers.

Pauly, formerly the Testing and Special Projects Coordinator at the ERC, has been a legal fellow in the office of Congressman Pete Stark (D- CA) as well as a clerk for Equal Rights Advocates in San Francisco and the Oakland City Attorney’s Office. She also served as a Fair Housing and Tenant/Landlord Counselor for Sentinel Fair Housing in Oakland, CA. Pauly graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. She also holds a B.A. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a visiting graduate student at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

About the Equal Rights Center (www.equalrightscenter.org)
Originally formed in 1983, the Equal Rights Center (ERC) is a national non-profit civil rights organization based in Washington, D.C. With members located in every state and the District of Columbia, the ERC works nationally to promote equal opportunity in housing, employment, disability rights, immigrant rights, and access to public accommodations and government services for all protected classes under federal, state, and local laws.