Michelle Weltman is a lawyer and social worker and has been an advocate for education access issues in Montana, Missouri, and Illinois for the past ten years. In 2022, shortly after finding her way to Missoula, MT, she joined Disability Rights Montana, and is now the Supervising Attorney for Education. Michelle has dedicated her career to individuals with the greatest need and least access to legal representation. She has focused her advocacy on education rights, domestic violence, and other civil rights issues. Previous to DRM, she worked at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation (SO IL), on matters of special education, residency, discipline, homelessness, and efforts to disrupt the ‘school to prison pipeline.’ Michelle has presented on educational access issues and the how-to’s of IEP meetings to groups varying from the National Legal Aid and Defender’s (NLADA) Conference, to Missouri’s state-wide CASA Conference, to a cohorts of mothers staying in a homeless shelter.