This morning, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced this year’s crop of Fellows — you know, the people that are commonly referred to as recipients of the “Genius Award”. The list includes plenty of deserving winners, including a local: Marie-Therese Connolly, an elder rights lawyer who currently works as the director of the Life Long Justice project at Appleseed.

Connolly, who once served as the director of the Department of Justice’s Elder Justice and Nursing Home Initiative, was awarded the grant based on her standing as a “leading voice in efforts to prevent the suffering of older adults” and her efforts to “ensure that elder abuse becomes a priority on the national agenda.”

As a MacArthur Fellow, Connolly will receive a “no strings attached” award of $500,000 — paid in quarterly installments over the span of five years — which the Foundation says is designed to “encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations.”