The Public Health Law Teaching Project Announces Funding Awards

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is pleased to announce a second year of support for the teaching of public health law at U.S. schools of public health. The initiative is part of a CDC-funded collaborative project designed to improve capacity for local health departments and increase knowledge of law among the next cadre of public health graduates. Now more than ever, it appears critical that MPH students receive substantive training related to law as legal competencies are core to public health across practice settings. 

Two schools of public health will each receive a $10,000 award to support the development and teaching of a first-time course in public health law for the 2026-2027 academic year. The institutions receiving funding awards—selected from a competitive pool of applicants—are the George Mason University College of Public Health and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. The awards will support the development and teaching of a course in public health law at each institution. In addition to the funding, awardees will receive extensive curriculum support and cohort-based mentorship from seasoned faculty who are experts in teaching the subject to both public health and law students.  

This second cohort of faculty and mentors expands the Public Health Law Teaching Community of Practice (“Community of Practice”) to foster learning and share perspectives across academic institutions while receiving support on the development and implementation of their courses and curricular materials. The Project, now in its second year, is anticipated to expand in the future. 

The Teaching Public Health Law project has also succeeded in championing for public health law to be included as a competency for MPH students. Although the Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH) does not currently include law among MPH competencies, numerous leaders recognize law as fundamental to public health education. In its current revision of MPH competencies, CEPH can join four other leading public health organization who offer similar recognition: (1) The Public Health Foundation’s Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals; (2) the CDC’s Ten Essential Public Health Services; (3) PHAB’s Foundational Public Health Services; and (4) The Consortium of Universities for Global Health also includes law in its competencies. 

Project Co-PI Magda Schaler-Haynes, professor of Health Policy and Management and professor of Population and Family Health, reflected on the significance of the investment in training public health students, saying, “In many ways, the ‘public’ part of “public health” involves law. To be effective, the public health workforce must be conversant in basic elements of the legal landscape; this requires training that is long overdue. It is exciting to help grow competencies in law for MPH students in order to better equip future leaders with essential skills to improve and defend the public’s health.” 

Awardee Lee Black, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Administration at the George Mason University College of Public Health said: “Our College of Health and Human Services recently transitioned into the state of Virginia's first College of Public Health. Although we’ve long offered a general healthcare law course primarily to our health administration students, creating a course in public health law will better align options for students with the mission of the College and increase the opportunities for interdisciplinary study that we’ve long been seeking.” 

Patricia M. Sweeney, JD, MPH, RN, a previous award recipient, reflected on her participation in the Public Health Law Teaching Project: “As a retired Ohio local public health department director, I have experienced the reality that every public health practitioner must understand the legal process and must comprehend how laws and policies impact their practice and public health outcomes. This knowledge is fundamental to effective practice. As a Public Health Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Kent State University, I have witnessed the evolution of student professionalism and commitment to public health as they have acquired an understanding of public health law.” 

Awardee Sarah Blenner, JD, MPH shared “When I started at UCLA in 2016, I launched an advocacy training program to equip students with skills to engage in public health advocacy work. Now 10 years later, students come into our programs ready to make change, but they lack the coursework to build foundational legal knowledge to make advocacy more effective. Public health law both shapes population health outcomes and defines public health interventions and operations. I am honored that Columbia is giving me the opportunity to offer the Fielding School of Public Health’s public health law course for the first time in 20 years. Our students are ready.” 

“The Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS), the largest survey of local and state health department workers, consistently shows that ‘Policy Engagement’ is the second highest training need for public health workers. Expanding courses on public health law in schools and programs of public health, combined with advocating for law to be a foundational knowledge area for CEPH accreditation, will help solve this longstanding gap,” said Heather Krasna. 

On Monday, July 20, at 2pm ET, the Public Health Law Teaching Community of Practice mentors will teach a Council on Education for Public Health webinar "Improving the Public’s Health by Teaching Public Health Law" Register: https://lnkd.in/ejz2vUEY and Learn More: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7465749205148549121/  

The Public Health Law Teaching Project is led by Columbia Mailman School faculty Magda Schaler-Haynes, JD, MPH, and Heather Krasna, PhD, MS, EdM. The project is housed within the Center for Public Health Systems in the Columbia Mailman Department of Health Policy and Management. Professor Schaler-Haynes and Dean Krasna will continue to lead the Public Health Law Teaching Community of Practice; additional faculty mentors include Stacie Kershner, JD, deputy director of the Center for Law, Health & Society, at Georgia State University College of Law; Montrece Ransom, JD, MPH, lead editor of Public Health Law: Concepts and Case Studies, public health law faculty at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, and Director of the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training; and Marice Ashe, JD, Founder of ChangeLab Solutions and former Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.  

The “Teaching Public Health Law in Accredited Schools and Programs of Public Health” project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under award NU38PW000025, “Strengthening Public Health Systems and Services through National Partnerships to Improve and Protect the Nation’s Health.” This project is being conducted as part of the Consortium for Workforce Research in Public Health (CWORPH), a collaboration of universities and public health organizations conducting practice-oriented research and analysis on public health finance, workforce, and infrastructure. Information, content, and conclusions contained within this document are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by, CDC, Health and Human Services (HHS), or the U.S. Government.