Short Bio

Carrie Griffin Basas (she/her or they/them) is an attorney (licensed in WA State) and strategic consultant. She is the founder of Aligna, Justice Studio, and CoDesign Works. From 2022-2024, she led Disability Law Colorado and Disability Rights Washington. Prior to those executive director roles, she served as Governor Inslee’s Director of the Washington State Office of the Education Ombuds for seven years. In addition to nonprofit and public service, she has been a law professor, specializing in disability rights, employment law, criminal justice, and ethics, and an active attorney since 2003. Carrie is also a graduate of Swarthmore College (B.A. with Honors), University of Washington (M.Ed.), and Harvard Law School (J.D. ‘02).

Carrie is a disabled person, mother of a disabled high schooler, and first-generation college graduate. Carrie has served as an advisor to the National Association of Law Students with Disabilities, a Commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, and a board member for nonprofits and foundations focused on human rights, gender justice, and youth success. As part of her desire to merge research and practice, she published a book of mentoring advice (“Lawyers, Lead On”) from the current generation of lawyers with disabilities to the next generation. She has also published extensively on issues of accessibility, incarceration, health stigma, advocacy fatigue, and racial justice.

Carrie founded her first nonprofit at the age of 26 with just $10K. She doesn’t recommend that as a startup plan. She has served on nonprofit and foundation boards for more than twenty years– which she highly recommends.