Heidi Lawyer started her career in disability policy and advocacy in 1992 when her son Danny (now 38) was diagnosed with Autism. In 1996, she became Deputy Director at what is now the disAbility Law Center of Virginia, Virginia’s protection and advocacy system (P&A).
She helped guide to passage legislation to transition the state’s protection and advocacy agency from the executive branch to independent state agency status. In 2002 she was appointed as Interim Director of the agency. In 2003, Heidi became Executive Director of the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities, Virginia’s Developmental Disabilities Council where she remained until 2020.
While with the Board, she co-founded the Alliance for Community, an advocacy coalition focused on redirecting state funds from institutions to the community resulting in the first-ever capital fund appropriation for community housing of $15M. She served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Council on Developmental Disabilities Board of Directors. Heidi was also a co-founder of The Autism Program of Virginia (TAP-VA), the first autism-specific program to receive General Assembly funding and was the President of its Board for 5 years. The program still exists as Commonwealth Autism.
Heidi retired from state service after 31 years. She then started work as a contractor to the Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (PEATC) where she focused on resource development, family support, grant-writing, and policy work. In 2024, she was appointed to be Deputy Director of PEATC.
Throughout her career, Heidi has served on numerous national, state, and local advisory councils and task forces. In her role as an advocate for her son Danny, in 1993, she filed litigation in federal district court against her local school district on extended school year (ESY) services; that win created a precedent for providing ESY in the Eastern District of Virginia.