Beth Mitchell, Austin

Beth Mitchell received her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 1991. Since then, she has worked at Disability Rights Texas (DRTx), the federally designated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) organization for Texas that protects and advocates for the rights of people with disabilities.

For more than three decades, Beth has led DRTx’s Institutional Rights and Civil Liberties team, focusing on representing individuals with mental illness and intellectual disabilities in securing community-based services and protecting their rights while institutionalized in psychiatric hospitals, state supported living centers, juvenile justice facilities, and jails and prisons. Her work has spanned impact litigation, administrative advocacy, policy and rulemaking, systemic monitoring, and legislative engagement.

Beth also currently serves as Litigation Coordinator at DRTx and also briefly oversaw the agency’s Residential Child Care Monitoring team, which monitors the State’s compliance with the federal court order in M.D. v. Abbott regarding the treatment of foster youth in Texas.

In addition to her work at DRTx, Beth is a Judicial Commissioner on Mental Health for the State of Texas.