Our friend and colleague, Doris Clanton, counsel for Georgia’s Department of Aging Services (DAS), died of cancer at age 62 on June 20th. Doris worked alongside the excellent elder rights team at DAS, with our former commission members Maria Greene, who was the director of that department, and Natalie Thomas, the long-time legal services developer.
Doris often called commission staff for technical assistance, always raising challenging and thought-provoking questions. But she helped staff too, most recently by reviewing and providing helpful comments on the draft national lay fiduciary guides that we are preparing for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Doris worked to support rights and services for older people with mental illness, exploration of elder mediation options, health care decision-making for unbefriended elders, and much more—and did so with great energy and good humor. She participated actively in the 2011 Third National Guardianship Summit on behalf of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.
We will miss Doris’s questions and insights, and we know her Georgia colleagues will miss them too.