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Training Future Public Health Professional in Law: Results from a Pilot Curriculum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2025

Florence Pham
Affiliation:
National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, DRT Strategies, INC., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, United States
Jami Crespo
Affiliation:
ChangeLab Solutions , Oakland, United States
Montrece Ransom
Affiliation:
National Network of Public Health Institutes , St. Louis, United States
Tyra Satchell*
Affiliation:
ChangeLab Solutions , Oakland, United States
*
Corresponding author: Tyra Satchell; Email: tsatchell@changelabsolutions.org

Abstract

Recognizing the increased demand for public health law skills within the public health workforce, ChangeLab Solutions, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted a pilot program to increase knowledge of law among public health students. In partnership with a team of curriculum consultants, ChangeLab Solutions developed and piloted a curriculum across eight public health programs that consisted of six modules which focused on defining public health law and explaining its role in shaping health outcomes and inequities. Faculty members that piloted the modules found students had an increased knowledge of public health law concepts after completing the modules. Faculty members also experienced several barriers that might hinder effective delivery of the curriculum. Integration of public health law concepts into public health coursework within SPPH is one method of increasing students’ preparedness and capacity to use legal tools in addressing health outcomes and inequities.

Information

Type
Columns: Teaching Health Law
Copyright
© ChangeLab Solutions and the Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

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Footnotes

About This Column

Teaching Health Law is edited by Brietta R. Clark, JD, Fritz B. Burns Dean of Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University. She can be reached at brietta.clark@lls.edu.

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