The Brater collection consists of eight series: Environment and Natural Resources, Mental Health, Judiciary, Other Policy Files, Legislative Files, Subject Files, News Clippings, and Other Office Files. The collection's strength lies in its documentation of Brater's activities in the areas of environmental issues and mental illness treatment programs as a member of the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives.
Elizabeth Brater is a former member of the Michigan State Senate (2003-2010) and House of Representatives (1995-2000), Mayor of Ann Arbor (1991-1993) and member of the Ann Arbor City Council (1988-1993). She is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to entering politics, Brater was a writer and editor and taught writing at the University of Michigan.
Brater is particularly well-known as a leader in the areas of the environment and mental health. As both a state Senator and Representative, Brater sponsored numerous bills focused on protecting the environment. She was named Sierra Club Environmentalist of the Year in 1996, Clean Water Action Great Lakes Lawmaker of the Year in 2005, Jane Elder Environmentalist of the Year in 2006, and received the Michigan League of Conservation Voters Environmental Leadership Award in 2004.
As a mental health advocate, Brater worked to ensure that people with mental illnesses were in treatment rather than in jail or homeless shelters. She received several awards for her work in this area as well, including the Michigan Alliance for the Mentally Ill Legislator of the Year Award and the Association of Children's Mental Health Legislator of the Year Award in 1998 and the Michigan Psychiatric Society Mental Health Advocate Award in 2000. During her years in the legislature, Elizabeth Brater focused a great deal of attention on the issue of the prevention of criminalization of people with mental illness (PWMI). Many people refer to this public policy issues as "jail diversion," but Brater felt this label was inaccurate. Jail diversion refers to diverting PWMI from the jail after they have already been arrested, while her policy objective was to prevent PWMI from being arrested in the first place though a series of preventative steps, such as educating law enforcement personnel about how to interact with PWMI and giving PWMI access to the mental health system. A second prevention stage, if arrest did occur, was the establishment of a mental health court to allow PWMI charged with a crime to be diverted to mental health treatment, rather than pursue the adjudication. She adopted the term Treatment Alternatives to describe this public policy objective.
In addition to her service at the state level, Brater was active in Ann Arbor city governance. She was elected as the first woman mayor in 1991, and represented Ann Arbor's Third Ward on the City Council from 1988 to 1991. As Mayor she secured passage of the city's weekly recycling collection program and led the effort to launch the city's materials recovery facility. She also worked to increase cooperation between Ann Arbor and its neighbors and improve the efficiency of city government.
Elizabeth Brater was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1951 and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B. A. in English (1973) and an M. A. in History (1976). She has been involved in many community and environmental organizations including the Sierra Club, the Ecology Center, and the League of Women Voters. She is married to Enoch Brater, and moved to Ann Arbor in 1975 when he accepted a position as an English professor at the University of Michigan. The Braters have two children who graduated from the Ann Arbor Public Schools.
