JESSICA MURPHY
Jessica Murphy is a non-attorney special education advocate who serves families in Michigan. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Siena Heights University and started her journey in advocacy when her twin daughters received diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and global developmental delay at age two.
She became involved with the Early Care and Education and School Readiness Advisory Committees in Ionia County as a parent representative making sure that early childhood providers had access to a family perspective on early childhood and school readiness matters. This experience led to a position as the Ionia County Great Start Parent Coalition Parent Liaison, where she provided resources and training opportunities to families across Ionia County. During this time, she also served on the Michigan Department of Education’s (MDE) Special Education Advisory Committee as member at large, collaborating with committee members to advise MDE on concerns related to special education.
Jessica’s journey continued when she joined Disability Rights Michigan (DRM) in 2019 as a special education advocate. During her time at DRM, Jessica provided direct advocacy to families of students with disabilities, helping them understand special education and how to best support and, when necessary, fight for their children. She filed a multitude of state administrative complaints on behalf of students and their families, helping them obtain over 1000 hours of compensatory services and systemic change on a district level.
Throughout her life Jessica’s motto has been, “I want to make things and help people”. She has developed and provided numerous trainings on early childhood and special education matters and is excited to continue to live her motto by helping to bring AW’s Special Education Legal Clinics to families in Michigan.
Jessica lives in rural Michigan with her husband of twenty years and her teen daughters. She enjoys arts and crafts of all kinds, but especially sewing, crocheting, and whittling as well as spending time in her backyard, slowly but surely turning it into the native cottage garden of her dreams.
Education
Siena Heights University, B.A.