Maria Pulzetti

Maria Pulzetti is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Health and Independence Unit at Community Legal Services.  Her practice includes direct representation of clients regarding cash assistance, food stamps, child care subsidies, and Medicaid benefits. Her advocacy initiatives focus on cash assistance and WIC (the supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children).  Maria formerly worked as an Assistant Federal Defender at the Federal Community Defender for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, handling capital habeas cases and criminal appeals.  She is the former executive director of the Moscow-based Russian Justice Initiative, which represents victims of human rights violations at the European Court of Human Rights.  During college, she co-founded the Day of Silence, a student-led day of action against the silencing and erasure of LGBTQ people in schools.

Ms. Pulzetti received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she received the Francis Wayland Prize for litigation in the clinical legal services organization, and her B.A. from the University of Virginia.