Tim Spofford retired in January 2010 as a senior staff attorney for the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.  In a quarter century with the agency, he worked in Washington DC, San Francisco, and for almost fifteen years in the Seattle office.  Mr. Spofford specialized in disability discrimination at the postsecondary and K-12 levels, but was also responsible for a wide variety of other civil rights issues falling within OCR's law enforcement responsibilities, including race, national origin, sex and age discrimination matters. In recent years, he resolved discrimination complaints involving school districts, colleges and universities, and other institutions throughout the Seattle office's region, which extends from Montana to the Northern Marianas, and from Alaska to Nevada. He also provided, and continues to provide, technical support to students, parents, and educators regarding compliance with the federal statutes that OCR enforces, and has been a regular presenter at national and regional confernces of educators, disability service providers, and state officials.

In addition to his work as an OCR lawyer, Mr.Spofford led a number of OCR technology initiatives, including its intranet, its online discrimination complaint form system, and the team that designed and built OCR's electronic case management system, which it implemented in 2003. For several years he also managed OCR's Internet web content. He regularly collaborated with Education Department IT staff and contractors in supporting agency systems, and provided technical support to OCR colleagues throughout the country.

Early in his career, Mr. Spofford worked as staff attorney for the Children's Defense Fund, as a public defender in Oregon, and for prison law projects in Oregon and Maryland. In the early 1990s, he was an Assistive Technology Specialist and Instructor in the Disabilities Services office of Mt. Hood Community College. 

Until his recent retirement, Tim was admitted to practice law in Massachusetts (1974) and Oregon (1977), and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He received his JD from Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, following college in Washington state and Idaho.  He is a contributing member of the American Constitution Society, the American Civil Liberties Union, Move On, and other organizations that work for progressive change and protection of human rights in the U.S. and abroad.

In past lives, he was a radioman in the U.S. Coast Guard, a Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management firefighter, a Boston cab driver, and a member of the National Ski Patrol.