Center for Disability Rights (CDR) is thrilled to welcome Bryan O’Malley as our new Vice President of External Affairs. In this role, Bryan leads CDR’s advocacy, including our local systems change activities, state-level policy work, and federal efforts to advance Disability Freedom so that people who rely on Long Term Services and Support are no longer forced into unwanted institutionalization. In this role, Bryan also leads CDR’s development activities.

Bryan joins CDR after serving as the Executive Director of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State (CDPAANYS) for almost 15 years where he always centered the experience of people who use and provide Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA). He provided a platform for consumers to share their lived experience, using their experiences to shape proposals that appealed to state policy makers and advocates alike. He played a pivotal role in developing and running the Fair Pay for Home Care campaign which established a statewide minimum wage for home care workers and indexed it to the state minimum wage, after years of consumers sharing that the eligibility for home care was useless due to the lack of workers. Bryan also led the statewide #SaveCDPA campaign which defended the rights of Disabled New Yorkers to have a choice in their CDPA fiscal intermediary services and fought to preserve the important support function that fiscal intermediaries performed. His work to #SaveCDPA was relentless, and his efforts in the face of powerful and monied interests, including two governors, demonstrated leadership by example, serving as an inspiration for many to fight for their basic freedoms and rights.

Bryan, like other Disabled people, Bryan has a personal understanding of ableism that informs his work, but his deep and sincere empathy for others drives his commitment to disability rights, freedom, and justice. In recognition of this enduring commitment and his strategic leadership, Bryan was inducted into the New York State Disability Rights Hall of Fame in 2025.

Prior to CDPAANYS, Bryan served as the Deputy Director of Health and Human Services for the New York State Senate, worked for Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried, and engaged in statewide mental health advocacy with the Mental Health Association of New York State as the organizational campaign manager on Timothy’s Law.

The entire CDR community welcomes Bryan!