DEMOCRAT KATHERINE RYBAK ANNOUNCES THAT SHE WILL RUN FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 76 CURRENTLY HELD BY WENDY McNARAMA
PROFILE OF KATHERINE RYBAK
I was raised in Chicopee, Massachusetts. I am the oldest of three children. My mom was a stay-at-home mom until I was in high school when she went back to work and then to college. After thirteen years of working and attending school at night, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in accounting. My dad, whose parents both immigrated from Poland, left college to work in the family business, a small bar, and later a six-lane candlepin bowling alley. The original bar and bowling alley were taken by eminent domain for urban renewal. The bar was relocated and is now owned and operated by one of my many cousins. My dad was very involved with the community and served on the board of the community center, the credit union, and the Boys’ Club. My mom volunteered at my school typing up tests on mimeograph paper that I later had to take.
Family
I met my husband, Tom Thornton, at The Pub in Evansville. A mutual friend and dedicated matchmaker introduced us and arranged our first couple of dates. We were married in 1982 and we have four children, who were all educated in the Evansville Vanderburgh School System. Anna Harden teaches science at North High School, Emily Thornton is a scientist in Oxford, England, Elliot Thornton is a digital dictionary and language-learning software developer in Fort Wayne, and Lydia Thornton is a software engineer for a startup in San Francisco. We have three grandchildren, Olivia, age 9, Evelyn, age 8, and James, age 4.
Education
I attended St. Stanislaus School for kindergarten through eighth grade and then went on to Chicopee High School. I graduated from Boston College with a degree in Economics and Political Science. I obtained my law degree from Cornell University. I received support from scholarships that enabled me to complete my education.
Employment
My first job was on a tobacco farm in Suffield, Connecticut. My friends and I were bused from Chicopee to work early each morning. We worked in the fields and in the sheds where the tobacco was dried. We returned home exhausted and dirty each evening. During my third summer, migrant workers from South Carolina worked beside us during the day and lived in farm housing during the night. Tobacco farm work made me appreciate all future opportunities, including jobs cleaning toilets in a hospital, operating a riveting machine in a factory, and delivering meals.
During law school, I worked as a research assistant with a professor who invited me to attend a conference at the United Nations, as an intern in the state’s attorney general’s office, and as an intern at Cornell Legal Aid. My goal when I graduated from law school was to be a legal aid lawyer. I moved to Evansville in 1979 to take a position with what was then called the Legal Services Organization of Indiana (LSO). I stayed for over forty years.
During my years of active law practice, I advocated for survivors of domestic violence and elder abuse, tenants facing homelessness, debtors destabilized by garnishments, individuals denied government assistance, child support payors who could not afford to live on the income remaining after paying child support, parents trying to provide care for disabled children, and citizens who needed to seal their criminal records.  One of my missions was to help clients and other lawyers negotiate the complex requirements to access Medicaid and other government benefits. I also engaged in “client prevention†by educating the public about their rights and warning them about pitfalls and scams.
For a few years in the 1990s, I had the opportunity to serve as long term care ombudsman for residents in nursing facilities in several counties. I will never forget the time I walked into a facility before lunchtime and saw a roomful of residents sitting in the dining room with puddles of urine under their wheelchairs and static playing on the radio. As ombudsman, I was in the position to fight for better care and dignity for nursing home residents.
Debtors’ prison was alive and well when I began my work at LSO. When clients who were threatened with jail asked for my help, I stopped the practice of jailing debtors through a series of appeals and follow up advocacy.  Additional advocacy reduced the frequency with which debtors were jailed for missing court dates, and preserved assets and income for debtors so that they could pay their current necessary expenses.
Volunteer Activities
I served on the founding board of directors of Albion Fellows Bacon Center and volunteered for the night shift one night a week when the domestic violence shelter first opened. When the community organized to start a program for incapacitated people who did not have guardians, I served on the founding board of Guardianship Services of Southwestern Indiana. I continue to serve as a volunteer guardian for three individuals with cognitive disabilities. The United Way sponsors a program to provide free tax preparation services for moderate- and low-income taxpayers and I have prepared taxes for free for ten years.
Retirement
I retired from Indiana Legal Services at the end of May 2020. I continued to volunteer preparing petitions to seal criminal records for low-income clients. I also work occasionally as a mediator, guardian ad litem, and public defender. I enjoy my free time walking, reading, watching movies, and playing scrabble.
I was raised in Chicopee, Massachusetts. I am the oldest of three children. My mom was a stay-at-home mom until I was in high school when she went back to work and then to college. After thirteen years of working and attending school at night, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in accounting. My dad, who’s parents both immigrated from Poland, left college to work in the family business, a small bar, and later a six-lane candlepin bowling alley. The original bar and bowling alley were taken by eminent domain for urban renewal. The bar was relocated and is now owned and operated by one of my many cousins. My dad was very involved with the community and served on the board of the community center, the credit union, and the Boys’ Club. My mom volunteered at my school typing up tests on mimeograph paper that I later had to take.
Family
I met my husband, Tom Thornton, at The Pub in Evansville. A mutual friend and dedicated matchmaker introduced us and arranged our first couple of dates. We were married in 1982 and we have four children, who were all educated in the Evansville Vanderburgh School System. Anna Harden teaches science at North High School, Emily Thornton is a scientist in Oxford, England, Elliot Thornton is a digital dictionary and language-learning software developer in Fort Wayne, and Lydia Thornton is a software engineer for a startup in San Francisco. We have three grandchildren, Olivia, age 9, Evelyn, age 8, and James, age 4.
Education
I attended St. Stanislaus School for kindergarten through eighth grade and then went on to Chicopee High School. I graduated from Boston College with a degree in Economics and Political Science. I obtained my law degree from Cornell University. I received support from scholarships that enabled me to complete my education.
Employment
My first job was on a tobacco farm in Suffield, Connecticut. My friends and I were bused from Chicopee to work early each morning. We worked in the fields and in the sheds where the tobacco was dried. We returned home exhausted and dirty each evening. During my third summer, migrant workers from South Carolina worked beside us during the day and lived in farm housing during the night. Tobacco farm work made me appreciate all future opportunities, including jobs cleaning toilets in a hospital, operating a riveting machine in a factory, and delivering meals.
During law school, I worked as a research assistant with a professor who invited me to attend a conference at the United Nations, as an intern in the state’s attorney general’s office, and as an intern at Cornell Legal Aid. My goal when I graduated from law school was to be a legal aid lawyer. I moved to Evansville in 1979 to take a position with what was then called the Legal Services Organization of Indiana (LSO). I stayed for over forty years.
During my years of active law practice, I advocated for survivors of domestic violence and elder abuse, tenants facing homelessness, debtors destabilized by garnishments, individuals denied government assistance, child support payors who could not afford to live on the income remaining after paying child support, parents trying to provide care for disabled children, and citizens who needed to seal their criminal records.  One of my missions was to help clients and other lawyers negotiate the complex requirements to access Medicaid and other government benefits. I also engaged in “client prevention†by educating the public about their rights and warning them about pitfalls and scams.
For a few years in the 1990s, I had the opportunity to serve as long term care ombudsman for residents in nursing facilities in several counties. I will never forget the time I walked into a facility before lunch time and saw a roomful of residents sitting in the dining room with puddles of urine under their wheelchairs and static playing on the radio. As ombudsman, I was in the position to fight for better care and dignity for nursing home residents.
Debtors’ prison was alive and well when I began my work at LSO. When clients who were threatened with jail asked for my help, I stopped the practice of jailing debtors through a series of appeals and follow-up advocacy.  Additional advocacy reduced the frequency with which debtors were jailed for missing court dates and preserved assets and income for debtors so that they could pay their current necessary expenses.
Volunteer Activities
I served on the founding board of directors of Albion Fellows Bacon Center and volunteered for the night shift one night a week when the domestic violence shelter first opened. When the community organized to start a program for incapacitated people who did not have guardians, I served on the founding board of Guardianship Services of Southwestern Indiana. I continue to serve as a volunteer guardian for three individuals with cognitive disabilities. The United Way sponsors a program to provide free tax preparation services for moderate- and low-income taxpayers and I have prepared taxes for free for ten years.
Retirement
I retired from Indiana Legal Services at the end of May 2020. I continued to volunteer preparing petitions to seal criminal records for low-income clients. I also work occasionally as a mediator, guardian ad litem, and public defender. I enjoy my free time walking, reading, watching movies, and playing scrabble.
