Shandra Hartly is NHeLP’s Staff Attorney. She works with Eligibility and Enrollment, and the Services practice areas. Before joining NHeLP, Shandra spent eight years at the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP), Alabama’s Protection and Advocacy agency, where she progressed from an intern to a Senior Staff Attorney. At ADAP, Shandra was responsible for the bulk of the office’s advocacy surrounding access to Medicaid, with a particular focus on home and community-based services (HCBS). In that role, Shandra engaged in extensive systemic and individual advocacy to improve access to HCBS for Alabamians with disabilities, as well as “know-your-rights” outreach to waiver recipients and their families in all 67 of Alabama’s counties.

During her time at ADAP, Shandra also served as lead class counsel on multiple federal lawsuits, including class actions challenging the administration of Alabama’s largest Medicaid waiver, lack of access to medical care in a rural county jail, and protracted wait times in jails and prisons for criminal defendants in need of competency treatment.

Shandra holds a JD from The University of Alabama School of Law (2018) and a BA in English Literature from Washington State University (2014). During law school, Shandra worked at the Nampa Family Justice Center in Nampa, Idaho, where she advocated on behalf of survivors of intimate partner violence in rural Idaho, interned in UA’s Domestic Violence Law Clinic, and was a founding member of UA Law’s chapter of the International Refugee Assistance Project. Before moving to Alabama to attend law school, Shandra worked in elementary special education through AmeriCorps in Rochester, Washington.

In her free time, Shandra enjoys horror novels, live music, and road trips. She is a native of Lacey, Washington and currently lives in Alabama with her husband and her two spoiled cats.