Paul Nathanson, Executive Director

For over four decades, Paul Nathanson has been a groundbreaking leader in the field of aging advocacy. A past president of the American Society on Aging and a founder of the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging, and has received and administered several million dollars in grants and awards primarily in the field of legal services for the elderly. Paul was the founding Executive Director of the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC) from 1972-1980, and has returned to lead NSCLC since 2008.  From 1980-2005, he served as Director of the University of New Mexico (UNM) Institute of Public Law, a member of the UNM law school faculty and associate provost; he is now an emeritus professor. Paul has also served as National Secretary of the Gray Panthers and is a past Chair of the Board of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM); he is currently on the  NCPSSM Board.  Paul has also been chair of the New Mexico Association of Geriatric Education (NMAGE) and on the Board of the New Mexico Legal Aid Society and KNME, New Mexico’s public television station.  Paul has also been involved in the field of social marketing and  has won numerous awards for his work on video production as a means of organizing, including regional Emmys.  Paul is a graduate of Duke University (JD) and the University of Chicago (MCompLaw).  Over the years, Paul has observed numerous changes in the needs of seniors, particularly low-income seniors,  and has focused his recent work on the unique impact federal policies have on low-income seniors, particularly women of color. 

Kevin Prindiville, Deputy Director

Kevin Prindiville started as a Staff Attorney at NSCLC's Oakland office in 2006.  He works primarily on Medicare Part D and other issues impacting dual eligibles and is currently leading NSCLC's project to employ strategic litigation and administrative advocacy to preserve low income older adults' access to health care.  He was part of the co-counsel team on the Part D class action lawsuit Situ v. Leavitt as well as the recent Social Security/SSI benefits case Martinez v. Astrue.  Prior to joining NSCLC, Kevin worked as a staff attorney at the Pennsylvania Health Law Project in Philadelphia where he represented low-income individuals having trouble obtaining health care.  Kevin is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of California, San Diego.  He is admitted to the California Bar. 

Rochelle Bobroff, Director, Federal Rights Project

Rochelle Bobroff is the Directing Attorney of the Federal Rights Project at the National Senior Citizens Law Center, which was formed to protect court access for individuals harmed by violations of federal law.  She has written numerous Supreme Court and court of appeals amicus briefs in support of court access for safety net and civil rights cases. She directs a listserv that informs hundreds of attorneys of the latest developments in federal rights cases, and provides technical assistance to lawyers litigating these issues. She was previously a Senior Attorney with the AARP Foundation Litigation group, where she litigated and wrote amicus briefs for Medicaid and Social Security cases.  She began her legal career at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau’s Southern Maryland office, handling a wide range of legal services cases.  She received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Georgia Burke, Directing Attorney

Georgia Burke co-directs NSCLC’s Oakland Office.  She joined NSCLC in 2005, where she has worked primarily on issues related to Medicare Part D, issues affecting health coverage for dual eligibles, and health care access for limited-English proficient (LEP) beneficiaries.  Georgia spearheads NSCLC’s extensive administrative Medicare advocacy with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and has drafted and coordinated joint comments among state and national advocacy organizations that led to significant improvements in agency guidance and consumer communications for dual eligibles and LEP beneficiaries. Georgia also is active in national legislative advocacy around Part D, having worked with Congress to improve beneficiary protections in the Medicare Part D statute. In addition to her national work, Georgia advocates for the unique needs of dual eligibles in California’s Medi-Cal program.  She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Association of California.  Georgia’s work at NSCLC follows almost 20 years in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Oakland devoted to administrative and legislative advocacy.  While in private practice in Oakland, she was a volunteer attorney with the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Volunteer Legal Services Program, handling SSI disability appeals.  Georgia’s undergraduate degree is from Manhattanville College; she is a magna cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she was an editor of Law and Policy in International Business.

Eric Carlson, Directing Attorney

Eric Carlson has specialized in long-term care since 1990, and is one of the nation’s leading consumer experts on nursing homes and assisted living facilities. He counsels attorneys from across the country in issues relating to long-term care, and also participates in litigation on residents’ behalf. He is the author of numerous publications and articles, including Long Term Care Advocacy (LexisNexis), the leading legal treatise on long-term care issues. His consumer publications include 20 Common Nursing Home Problems, and How to Resolve Them and (with co-author and fellow NSCLC attorney Katharine Bau Hsiao) The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Nursing Home Care (Taylor Trade).

Mr. Carlson speaks frequently on long-term care topics to attorneys, social workers, consumers, and others.  Recent presentations have taken him to Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, Texas, and other states.

Mr. Carlson is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota, and received his legal education from the Boalt Hall School of Law of the University of California at Berkeley. Following law school he served as a law clerk for a federal judge, worked in a fellowship in public interest law, and then served as Director of the Nursing Home Advocacy Project of Bet Tzedek Legal Services of Los Angeles.

Gene Coffey, Staff Attorney

Gene Coffey has been an attorney in NSCLC’s DC office since 2002.  He specializes in Medicaid’s coverage for long-term care services and also serves as the project director for NSCLC’s National Legal Resource Center grant from the U.S. Administration on Aging. He has written and lectured extensively on Medicaid, and also has litigated on behalf of Medicaid beneficiaries in several different states.  Most recently, he has focused on the “rebalancing” of the nation’s delivery of long-term care.  His recent articles and papers on this topic include: Narrowing Medicaid’s LTC Coverage? The Implications of the DRA’s HCBS Benefit,” 9 Marquette Elder's Advisor 131 (2007); Shaping the Future of Long-Term Care: Aging and Disability Resource Centers and the Role of Title IIIB Attorneys, 42 Clearinghouse Review 274 (Sept.-Oct. 2008); Money Follows the Person 101; and The Administration on Aging’s Nursing Home Diversion Program.  Gene has been cited in, among others, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Week.  He is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and received a NAELA President’s Recognition Award in 2006 for his work on the organization’s Medicaid Strategies Task Force.  Prior to joining NSCLC, Gene was a staff attorney at a Virginia legal aid program from 1997 to 2002.  He graduated from Manhattan College and Vermont Law School, and is admitted to practice in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Katharine Bau Hsiao, Directing Attorney

Katharine Bau Hsiao co-directs NSCLC’s Oakland Office and is working on long term care and Medicare Part D issues.  Katharine is a co-author of the Baby Boomer’s Guide to Nursing Home Care (Taylor Trade, August, 2006), and Medicare Part D: State and Local Efforts to Assist Vulnerable Beneficiaries (Commonwealth Fund, May, 2008) and numerous other guides to assist advocates in navigating low income health programs for seniors.  Prior to coming to NSCLC in 2005, Katharine served as a Managing Attorney at Legal Assistance for Seniors in Oakland, California for 10 years.  She was a key co-founder of the Alameda County Legal Language Project which provides trained interpreters and translators to legal services providers, and has led local, regional and national trainings on Cultural Competency, Language Access, and a variety of substantive elder law areas.  Katharine has also served as Interim Director of the Legal Aid Association of California, as Assistant Director of Career Planning for Minorities and Public Interest/Public Service at Boalt Hall School of Law, and as a private practice elder law attorney.  Katharine is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University and a member of Phi Beta Kappa (1982); she has a J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley (1988) and an M.Div. from the American Baptist Seminary of the West (2000).

Simon Lazarus, Public Policy Counsel

Si is Public Policy Counsel to the National Senior Citizens Law Center, where is responsible for the Washington DC advocacy efforts of the Herbert Semmel Federal Rights Project. Si served as Associate Director of President Jimmy Carter’s White House Domestic Policy Staff (1977-81), as a partner in Powell, Goldstein, Frazer, and Murphy LLP (1981-2002), and as Senior Counsel to Sidley Austin LLP (2002-2006). He is a Trustee of the Center for Law and Social Policy, a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and writes frequently on issues of law and policy. His articles have appeared in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, The American Prospect, Roll Call, Slate, The Hill, Newsweek, National Law Journal, and the Huffington Post.  Si writes frequently for the American Constitution Society’s ACS Blog and has published several ACS issue briefs, including “Mandatory Health Insurance: Is It Constitutional?” (December 2009) and “The Health Care Lawsuits: Unraveling A Century of Constitutional Law and the Fabric of Modern American Government” (February  2010).  His Atlantic article, “The Most Dangerous Branch?”, has been republished in two anthologies, The Best American Political Writing 2003, Royce Flippin, ed. (Avalon Press 2003), and Principles and Practice of American Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings, 2d ed., Samuel Kernell and Steven S. Smith, eds. (CQ Press 2003). He graduated from Yale Law School, where he was Note & Comment Editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Gerald McIntyre, Directing Attorney

Gerald McIntyre has more than 30 years of experience in legal services advocacy. He has worked as a staff attorney at Bronx Legal Services; as Executive Director of Southern Tier Legal Services in Bath, NY; and as a lecturer and staff attorney at Cornell Law School. He joined the staff of NSCLC in 1993, and has since provided support and co-counseling to countless legal services and other elder law attorneys on Social Security and SSI issues. Prior to his law career, Jerry was a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. Jerry graduated from the State University of New York and received his law degree from Yale Law School.

Scott L. Parkin, Communications Director

Scott L. Parkin is based in the Washington, DC office and provides communications counsel, oversight of the Web site and electronic communications as well as media and public relations support to the entire organization. Prior to joining NSCLC, he was Vice President of Communications for the National Council on Aging for seven years where his team garnered multiple awards in policy-related campaigns as well as in both electronic and print communications. For 12 years before that, he served as Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications for the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. A former journalist, he has also written extensively for long-term care publications and authored the very first "Consumers Guide to Long Term Care Insurance." A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he did graduate work in public relations at American University.

Anna Rich, Staff Attorney

Anna Rich is a staff attorney with NSCLC's Oakland Office.  She provides advocacy and support on behalf of consumers of California's In-Home Supportive Services program and dually eligible individuals receiving Medicare prescription drug coverage.  Anna also represents low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities in federal court.  Prior to joining NSCLC, she clerked for the United States District Court for Northern California and worked as an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.  Anna graduated from Swarthmore College in 1997 and from Yale Law School in 2003.  She is admitted to the California Bar. 

Rachel Frazier

Rachel Frazier is a Borchard Law and Aging Fellow at the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC) and Whitman Walker Clinic (WWC) in the District of Columbia.  After serving as an Americorps Vista working with uninsured individuals, Ms. Frazier pursued a career in law and public benefits. She earned a JD and Master of Public Health from Harvard in June 2010.  In the summer of 2009, Ms. Frazier was the Herbert Semmel Elder Law Fellow with AARP Foundation Litigation, where she worked on Medicaid litigation.  She currently engages in direct representation of SSI recipients at WWC and SSI policy advocacy at NSCLC.    

Evin Isaacson

Evin Isaacson is a Borchard Law and Aging Fellow at the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC) in Oakland, California and with Disability Rights California (DRC). She is focused on preserving and improving senior-serving Medicaid benefits through litigation and advocacy, as well as facilitating national coordination and collaboration among senior advocates on these issues in the face of state budget crises.  Prior to joining NSCLC, Ms. Isaacson worked for the Service Employees International Union in Washington, D.C., Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Florida as a long-term care industry/policy analyst and legislative advocate. In addition, she enforced patient’s rights as law clerk to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Region I Counsel for Civil Rights, engaged in Supreme Court- and appellate-level litigation on behalf of low-income consumers with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, and litigated affirmative state court actions against predatory mortgage brokers and lenders with the WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.  Ms. Isaacson received her undergraduate degree in Public Policy, magna cum laude, from Brown University in 2005 and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2011.