Diana I. Santiago, Esq.

Legal Director

(617) 357-8431 ext. 3238 | dsantiago@massadvocates.org

As MAC’s Legal Director, Diana Santiago  provides strategic direction to MAC’s advocacy and planning and oversees legal operations. During her nearly 10 years as an education attorney at MAC she has become a leader in the state advocating for equal educational opportunities at the intersection of immigration, multilingualism, and disability.  She partners with families and communities to ensure that MAC’s priorities reflect those of the families and communities that MAC serves. Diana convenes the Immigrant and Multilingual Children with Disabilities Coalition, a statewide coalition of multilingual and multicultural special education attorneys and advocates with a focus on language access in education, barriers to immigrant parent participation in the special education process, addressing the needs of English learners with disabilities, and the disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline on English learners.

Prior to joining MAC, Diana worked at the Boston Public Health Commission managing the Boston Child Health Study and projects focused on inclusion of children with disabilities in after school programs. Prior to that, she was a staff attorney at South Coastal Counties Legal Services. Diana attended Northeastern University School of Law and has a master’s degree in public health from Tufts University School of Medicine.