Dr. Jana Offergeld is an alumni of the International Diploma on Mental Health Law and Human Rights (2009-2010). As a disability rights researcher and policy advisor, Jana focuses on the right to participation and independent living and equal recognition before the law. Following research stints at the University in Münster and the Katho NRW, Jana joined the Bochum Center for Disabilitiy Studies at the EvH Bochum (BODYS). At BODYS, she worked for Prof. Dr. Theresia Degener, former chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and finished her PhD on article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities (UN CRPD), conducting a participatory study on supported decision-making in collaboration with Mensch zuerst e.V. (People First Germany). 

Since 2021, Jana works at the German Institute for Human Rights at the independent monitoring body for the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Her current work areas include legal capacity and the right to autonomy, supported vs. substitute decision-making in the mental health sector, independent living and the rights of children with disabilities. 

Since 2016, she conducts capacity building workshops for people with disabilities and professionals in the mental health and social sector on legal capacity, inclusion and other human rights related issues