Laura Prescott

Laura Prescott

After graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College, Laura immediately continued work in research for Smith, for the Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Services of Western Massachusetts and later for the Department of Mental Health in Northampton, Massachusetts, as Human Rights Coordinator. She has recently helped produce a report with recommendations to the Department on ways to reduce seclusion and restraint of persons with histories of physical and sexual abuse.

Ms. Prescott is the Executive Director and founder of Sister Witness International. She is also serves on the Advisory Board of Mental Disability Rights International, is a board member of the the Technical Expert Group on Women, Violence and Mental Health, in Washington, D.C., and was formerly on the board of the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy. She has lectured nationally and has been a keynoter on such topics as self-inflicted violence, lawyering for discredited women, and retraumatization of abuse survivors in the psychiatric system. She has served as a consultant for the Office of Mental Health in New York, the Department of Mental Health/Retardation in Maine, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the National Institute of Corrections, the National Women\'s Resource Center, and she has advised advocates and policy makers around the world.