Miriam Nunberg began her career as a teacher of students with multiple disabilities in Boston. She then attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and went on to spend fourteen years as an attorney in the Office for Civil Rights in the US Department of Education. At OCR, she investigated, mediated and resolved numerous individual and systemic complaints of discrimination in elementary, secondary and post-secondary educational institutions. Miriam left OCR to found the Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School (BUGS), an independent middle school with the mission of serving children of all backgrounds and abilities with a focus on the hands-on, interdisciplinary study of environmental sustainability.

Once BUGS was up and running, Miriam returned to her passion of ensuring civil rights in educational institutions, and established her private advocacy practice, focusing on the rights of students with disabilities at all educational levels. She also co-founded Parents for Middle School Equity, which successfully advocated for an end to discriminatory middle school admissions in Brooklyn’s District 15.  Miriam then served as a member of the Working Group that led the public redesign of the D15 Diversity Plan, which has led to a dramatic decrease in the level of segregation in middle schools across the district. Her work was featured in the New York Times Serial podcast, “Nice White Parents.”

In addition to her private practice, Miriam is currently a Senior Fellow in the Education Law and Policy Institute at New York Law School, where she advises on systemic civil rights complaints regarding educational equity in the the New York City Public Schools. She is the co-author of three Century Foundation publications: “A New Federal Approach to School Integration, Inspired by Student Activists” (August 16, 2021 with Laura Petty); “How can the Federal Government Support Integration in Charter Schools?” (April 29, 2019, with Halley Potter); and “Scoring States on Charter School Integration” (April 4, 2019, with Halley Potter). Miriam has provided numerous trainings to parents on their rights under Section 504 and the IDEA, and to school districts on educational equity and disproportionality under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.