Dr. Phillip Farfel has been engaged in civil rights advocacy in Baltimore City for 50 years. As co-founder of Disabled in Action of Baltimore in the 1970’s, he helped introduce State legislation that added disability as a protected class. He was involved in litigation against the Maryland MTA to assure that public buses were accessible to mobility impaired persons, which resulted in the Mobility Bus System and accessibility features for regular MTA buses. Dr. Farfel advocated for the rights of developmentally disabled persons by sponsoring a legislative resolution requesting the State to establish community alternatives to institutionalization under the Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waiver Program. As President of the Baltimore City School Board from 1992-97, he advocated for the constitutional right of Baltimore’s children to receive an equal educational opportunity by initiating School Board litigation to secure adequate State school funding. The case resulted in an additional $250 million over 5 years of State funds to the Baltimore City Public Schools. As a member of Baltimoreans United for Leadership Development (BUILD), Dr. Farfel has been engaged in promoting opportunities for ex-offenders to obtain job training and employment. He has had the privilege to provide volunteer grant writing support to “Turnaround Tuesday” a successful workforce development program targeting ex-offenders that is operated by BUILD. Dr. Farfel is currently an Assistant Vice President for Grant Development at MedStar Health, a health care system serving the Baltimore-Washington region. He and his grant team provide grant writing support in a variety of clinical areas, including pediatrics, geriatrics, oncology, diabetes, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, behavioral health and workforce development. Many of these grants address health disparities in Baltimore City and Washington D.C. Dr. Farfel is a lifelong resident of Baltimore City and is a graduate of Northwestern High School. He has a Doctor of Science in Health Services Administration from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and a Masters of Social Work in Community Organization from the University of Maryland School of Social Work.