Suzanne Shepherd, J.D.

Suzanne Shepherd is the mother of three sons – Connor, Kevin, and Jack, who has Down syndrome.  Suzanne holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law. Suzanne is the former Director of Legal Services for the Seton Family of Hospitals. She remains on the Seton neonatal/pediatric ethics committee, and strives to bring a disability perspective to committee discussions. Suzanne provides legal advice to parents in the Central Texas Down syndrome community on special education issues, and makes presentations to  healthcare providers to improve the way the diagnosis of Down syndrome is conveyed to new parents. With a fellow parent in the Down syndrome community, she led the legislative fight to pass the Texas Down Syndrome Information Act to improve the diagnosis experience of new parents. She was born in New Jersey and is actually proud of that. Having married a native Texan, however, she’s lived in Austin since 1983 and calls Austin home.