Director, Mexico Office
Lisbet Brizuela, MA is a Mexican human rights activist with training in special education of children with intellectual disabilities. She is the Director of DRI’s Mexico and Central America regional office based in Mexico City and she has worked for DRI in different capacities since 2010. Ms. Brizuela has conducted investigations, monitoring, and reporting on human rights of children and adults with disabilities in institutions and orphanages.
She has trained activists and supported the work of the Colectivo Chuhcan, an organization run by people with psychosocial disabilities in Mexico City. She has been particularly instrumental in supporting advocacy by women with mental disabilities subject to violence and trauma and denial of parental or reproductive rights. Ms. Brizuela has supported the work of DRI attorneys in filing cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to protect children and adults with disabilities detained in institutions in Mexico and Guatemala.
Prior to her work with DRI, Ms. Brizuela served as Director for Innovation and Training at “Transforming 360 Degrees,” an organization dedicated to building the capacity of non-governmental advocacy organizations in Mexico. Before that, she worked as a special education teacher in the state of Yucatan, as Advisor in the Programme for Inclusion and Educational Equity at the Ministry of Education. She also worked in a program to include children with an intellectual disabilities in mainstream schools.
Throughout her career, Ms. Brizuela has been dedicated to the professionalization of civil society organizations as well as education, human rights and advocacy for children and adults with disabilities. She has trained activists, educators, and government officials throughout Mexico.