Patricia Mullahy Fugere (C’81, L’84) co-founded the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, an organization that provides pro bono civil legal assistance to families and individuals experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity in Washington, DC, and advocates for housing justice at a systemic level. Her life and work have focused on the cause of housing justice, recognizing that housing—as a human right—is foundational for positive outcomes in healthcare, education, employment, and more. In this conversation, Mullahy Fugere shared lessons from her decades of experience working in affordable housing law and on homelessness issues.
This event was hosted through Georgetown University’s Conversations in Health: Global to Local class, which invites global health professionals to Georgetown’s campus to engage in discussions regarding their career paths and expertise. John Monahan guided the structured conversation.
Featured
Patricia Mullahy Fugere (C’81, L’84) is the co-founder and former executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless (the Legal Clinic). While at the Legal Clinic, she helped to establish and was a founding member of the DC Access to Justice Commission and was instrumental in launching the DC Fair Budget Coalition, a multi-issue advocacy organization that seeks budget justice in the areas of health justice, food access, housing security, community safety, economic justice, and fair taxes and public deals. Though she retired from the Legal Clinic in 2022, Mullahy Fugere remains active in the housing and homelessness community, serving on the boards of the Center for Social Housing and Public Investment and Community Spring, as well as teaching a course on homelessness as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown Law. She received her undergraduate and law degree from Georgetown University.
John T. Monahan is a professor in the Department of Medicine, a senior advisor for global health to Georgetown University’s President John J. DeGioia, a senior fellow at the McCourt School of Public Policy, and a senior scholar at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law.