Elder abuse is growing as our population ages, but Connolly calls it a "hidden crime." She speaks out for the thousands of frail elderly people who are starved, beaten, and sexually and economically abused every year, whether by their relatives or their nursing homes or their caregivers. The facts can be dramatic and horrifying. Victims may languish in urine-soaked bedding, with sores so deep the bone shows. In one case, neighbors used ear plugs to keep from hearing the elderly victim's cries.
A graduate of Stanford University and Northeastern Law School, Connolly headed the Elder Justice and Nursing Home Initiative at the Department of Justice. Now she is a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson center and director of Life Long Justice at Appleseed. And she is bringing the facts of elder abuse to the public's attention, in the Washington Post and elsewhere.
The MacArthur Foundation says this year's winners include "an architect, a sports medicine researcher, a cellist, a developmental biologist, a radio producer, a neurologist, a conservator, a poet, a technologist, and a public historian."
Plus that one public interest lawyer, Marie-Therese Connolly.
What an outstanding example she is of a lawyer working in the public interest.
For more information about Marie-Therese Connolly, see the account from the MacArthur Foundation.
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