Elyn R. Saks is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. Her recent research focused on ethical dimensions of psychiatric research and forced treatment of the mentally ill. Professor Saks teaches Mental Health Law, Mental Health Law and the Criminal Justice System, and Advanced Family Law: The Rights and Interests of Children. She served as USC Law’s associate dean for research from 2005-2010 and also teaches at the Institute of Psychiatry and the Law at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.  She is also teaches as an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.

Professor Saks was a 2009 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship and in fall 2010 announced she was using funds from the “genius grant” to create the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics. The Institute will spotlight one important mental health issue per academic year and is a collaborative effort that includes faculty from seven USC departments: law, psychiatry, psychology, social work, gerontology, philosophy and engineering.

Before joining the USC Law faculty in 1989,Professor Saks was an attorney in Connecticut and instructor at the University of Bridgeport School of Law.  She graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University before earning her master of letters from Oxford University and her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, where she also edited the Yale Law Journal. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa; an affiliate member of the American Psychoanalytic Association; a board member of Mental Health Advocacy Services; and a member of the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Foundation and The American Law Institute. Professor Saks won both the Associate’s Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship and the Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award in 2004.

Elyn Saks in the News

Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics in the News
Elyn just received a Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association

John Robinson is General Manager for AXXESS Media, a video production company of WCNY Public Broadcasting, working with clients from Montreal to New York City. In 2010, Mr. Robinson started a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to educating people in schools and businesses about people with disabilities titled Disability Education Forum of New York (DEFNY). Mr. Robinson launched OurAbility.com to mentor young people and produce video stories about successful people with disabilities.

Prior to AXXESS, Mr. Robinson worked for 20 years for television stations in New York State from sales to management. He is a 1990 graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Mr. Robinson is the subject of a national documentary shown on Public Broadcasting Stations titled Get Off Your Knees: The John Robinson Story, and he authored an autobiography Get Off Your Knees: A Story of Faith, Courage, and Determination published by Syracuse University Press. In 2001, he was selected to carry the Olympic torch as it passed through Albany on its way to Salt Lake City for the 2002 games.

Howard D. Olinsky, Esq., is a partner at Olinsky Law Group. His practice is exclusively focused on Social Security Disability Law, Workers Compensation, Veterans Disability Benefits and Long Term Disability Law. Mr. Olinsky is a 1985 graduate of Syracuse University College of Law and a 1981 graduate of the State University of New York at Oswego. Mr. Olinsky has been a sustaining member of NOSSCR (National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives) since 1994 and has advanced training and expertise in representing Claimants seeking Social Security Disability benefits. Mr. Olinsky has attended 17 National NOSSCR conferences, and is a current member of the NDNY Federal Bar, Injured Workers Bar Association, Central New York Workers Compensation Bar Association, American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, and Onondaga and Oswego County Bar Associations.

Partner Mackenzie Hughes LLP

James H. Nicoll, Esq. is a partner in the Business Department at Mackenzie Hughes LLP.  James represents public companies, private companies, private investment funds and investment banks in a wide spectrum of matters, including mergers & acquisitions, capital markets, commercial lending, commercial contracts, ongoing securities law compliance and corporate governance. His mergers and acquisitions experience includes representing clients in domestic and cross-border mergers, stock sales, asset sales and joint ventures, and representing investment banks in connection with the delivery of fairness opinions. James’ capital markets experience includes representing issuers, placement agents and underwriters in public and private debt and equity offerings, tender offers, exchange offers, PIPEs, at-the-market offerings and registered direct offerings. James frequently represents lenders and borrowers in connection with commercial finance transactions, including asset-backed and cash flow financings. His commercial contracts experience includes, among other things, representing clients with respect to distribution, supply, and franchise agreement matters. James regularly counsels clients with respect to SEC filings and Dodd-Frank Act compliance. He also represents a number of technology start-up companies in Central New York and beyond.  James received his J.D. degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. He earned a B.S. degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University in 1998.

Janice Schacter Lintz is a passionate, accomplished hearing loss consultant and advocate. She is well known and respected for her ability to assess situations, identify areas for improvement, recommend solutions and implement programs that help organizations improve customer service and grow profits. Her ability to break down issues and do what is needed to affect change has earned her unprecedented access to business leaders, government officials, political leaders and respected academians around the world.

Since 2002, Janice has become the global “go-to” person on all matters related to access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Equipped with an undergraduate degree in business, a law degree, and experience as a successful litigator, Janice leverages her broad background to articulate compelling business cases for organizations in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds to improve hearing access for customers with hearing loss.

A culture lover, Janice felt her heart sink whenever her daughter Arielle – diagnosed with hearing loss at 2 ½ – struggled to understand museum guides and actors onstage, even with hearing aids. Not one to wait, Janice plunged into the research and learned that cultural venues could provide better hearing access with relatively inexpensive technology, such as the induction loop, a coil placed around a room that wirelessly transmits amplified sound to a hearing aid.

Janice works with domestic and international organizations to benchmark best practices and help clients leverage the most effective solutions for their situations. Working with multiple organizations, she helped the New York City Transit Commission recommend that induction loops be included in all New York City subway information booths and call boxes as part of President Obama’s $13.5 million Stimulus Package. She also worked with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission to implement this same technology in all taxis. New York City is the first United States city to offer this technology in its transit systems and taxis.

Appointments, Honors, and Committees
The New York City resident and mother of two was appointed to the Interagency Council for Services to the Deaf, Deaf-Blind and Hard of Hearing twice by New York State Governor David Paterson. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin J. Martin appointed her to represent the interests of people with hearing loss for two terms on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee. The New York City Mayor’s Office appointed her to the Taxi of Tomorrow Stakeholder Committee. The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) Commissioner appointed her to the TLC’s Accessibility Committee. And the US Access Board appointed Janice to both the Rail Committee and the Passenger Vessel Emergency Alarms Advisory Committee.

Janice is a member of The Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University’s Board. She has been a member of The Lower East Side Tenement Museum’s Advisory Committee, the Disabilities Network of New York City (DNNYC) and The Museum Access Consortium (MAC). She has participated in six Renaissance Weekend retreats for leaders in business and finance, government, the media, religion, medicine, science, technology and the arts.

Edwin J. Kelley, Jr., is Chair of the Business Law Department and the Public Finance Practice Group at Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC, in Syracuse, New York. He concentrates in public finance, tax, commercial transactions, real estate and commercial lending. He has acted as bond counsel for municipalities and school districts and counsel to colleges and universities and healthcare institutions on a wide variety of transactions to finance capital projects and to refinance or restructure outstanding tax-exempt and taxable loans. Mr. Kelley has substantial experience in designing and working with master trust indentures providing a financing platform for colleges and universities and hospital and healthcare systems. Mr. Kelley received his bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University, and both his Master of Science degree (Accounting) and Juris Doctor from Syracuse University.

Matthew W. Dietz has been practicing in the area of civil rights litigation since 1996 and litigated over 250 cases in trial and appellate courts involving Americans with Disabilities Act, Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws regarding the rights of Personswith Disabilities, and others seeking equal rights under the law on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, familial status, and sexual orientation and gender identity. Mr. Dietz is an active writer, advocate and speaker on disability rights issues and founded the Disability Independence Group, a non-profit corporation, which strives to encourage more persons withdisabilities to have equal opportunities in the workforce. The Disability Independence Group conducted the first focus group of lawyers withdisabilities to identify barriers throughout the legal profession in Florida as well a conducted a survey of the needs of Florida lawyers withdisabilities.

Mr. Dietz was past chair of the Equal Opportunities in the Law Section of theFlorida Bar, past chair of the Civil Rights Section of the American Association for Justice, past-chair of the Public Interest Law Sectionof the Florida Bar, and the past-chair of the Disability Committeewithin that section. In his work within the Florida Bar, Mr. Dietz drafted proposed Rule of Administrative Procedure 2.540, which provided guidelines for providing accommodations for Persons with Disabilities in Florida Courts. Mr. Dietz was also appointed to the Florida Supreme Court standing committee on Fairness and Diversity and the accessibility work group of the Florida Third District Court of Appeals, and Florida 11th Circuit Court in and for Miami Dade County. In 2004, he was awarded the G. Kirk Haas Humanitarian Award for his work on behalf of persons with disabilities. Mr. Dietz attended Boston University where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in 1992. In 1996, Mr. Dietz earned his Juris Doctor, with honors, from Brooklyn Law School. He is admitted to all Florida State and Federal Courts, and New York State Courts.

Ed Blatt is a Senior Managing Consultant – Child Welfare, Public Health and Family Assistance in the IBM Social Services and Healthcare Center of Competence. Newly established in 2010, the Center of Competence is a global team of experts dedicated to assisting government organizations that support the most vulnerable citizens. Prior to coming to IBM, Ed was the Executive Director and chief lobbyist for the Association for Community Living — a statewide organization of 130 non-profit providers of community based residential programs for people with mental illness in New York State. During his previous fifteen year career in New York State government, he held the positions of Director of Foster Care and Director for Institutional Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention for the New York State Department of Social Services. He was also Deputy Director of Governor Mario Cuomo’s Decade of the Child program — a ten-year program to improve and coordinate children’s services in New York State. During his more than 30 years in human services, Ed has worked in programs for people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, and visual impairments; victims of child abuse and neglect; foster care families; and children waiting to be adopted.

In addition to serving on the Board of Advisors for the Burton Blatt Institute, Ed is a member of the New York State’s Citizen Review Panel for Child Protective Services. The Citizen Review Panel is comprised of citizen volunteers who are authorized by law to examine the policies, procedures and practices of the State and social services districts and, where appropriate, specific cases. The Panel evaluates the extent to which the agencies are effectively discharging their child protection responsibilities. Ed holds a doctorate in Developmental Psychology from Syracuse University.

Robert Balk is the Chairperson of the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Athletes’ Council. He is a six time Paralympian having earned six Paralympic medals competing in both winter and summer games. He also currently serves as a member of the IPC Governing Board, the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission, and the US Olympic Committee’s (USOC) Athletes Advisory Council. In 2003 he was one of the ten member USOC Governance and Ethics Task Force which substantially revised the USOC bylaws and where he testified to the US Senate on Paralympic matters. Professionally Mr. Balk worked for Phantom Works, the advanced technology division of the Boeing Company, where he managed a global venture capital fund of funds portfolio. Mr. Balk received his Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Rochester Simon School.

Robert Balk in the News

IPC General Assembly set for Athens this weekend
November 20, 2013

BBI board member, Bob Balk, to receive Paralympic Order
November 1, 2013

Joshua H. Heintz has retired from the law firm of Gilberti Stinziano Heintz & Smith, P.C., in Syracuse, New York, where he practiced for 31 years concentrating on a wide variety of energy, commercial and industrial development projects, including brownfield redevelopment, power generation, solid waste management and surface mining facilities.  Mr. Heintz also serves as a trustee to Syracuse University and is the former Chair of the Syracuse University College of Law Board of Advisors.  Mr. Heintz is currently a member of the Board of Directors to the Global Universal Design Commission, Inc., a member of the Board of Directors of the Robert H. Jackson Center, and serves as the co-chair of the Advisory Board for The Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University.

Mr. Heintz is passionate about disability rights advocacy, specifically inclusive design, and developing buildings and environments to ensure universal accessibility.  In 2006 and 2007, Mr. Heintz initiated and organized the American Dream Forums I and II events which engaged nationally-recognized experts in the areas of design, technology, finance, marketing, and development in an unprecedented level of dialogue and debate on the possibility of developing and marketing universal design concepts.  In August 2007, Mr. Heintz was a sponsor and presenter at the Syracuse University Whitman School of Management’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, a first-of-its-kind program to train and empower disabled veterans to create and sustain an entrepreneurial venture.  In the fall of 2010, at a global conference on technology and innovation for people with disabilities in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Mr. Heintz delivered the keynote address on “Universalizing Universal Design.”  In the fall of 2011, at a conference on disability in the workplace, marketplace and supply chain, Mr. Heintz was a member of a panel on “Universal Design:  Expanding Markets and Increasing Workplace Productivity.”