College of Law receives $1M for regional Network for Public Health Law office

The ASU Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law has received a $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to continue operating the Western Region Office of the Network for Public Health Law.

The two-year grant will allow the college’s Public Health Law and Policy Program (PHLPP) to move ahead in providing legal and policy solutions to professionals dealing with complex public health legal challenges such as emergency preparedness, food safety and health reform, said James G. Hodge Jr., professor in the College of Law.

“With continued support from RWJF, our office has the capacity to further our collaboration and outreach to public health and health care practitioners in the West and nationally to advance the role of law to protect the public’s health,” said Hodge, also director of the PHLPP and of the Public Health Law Network – Western Region.

ASU received an initial $1.325 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2010, when the Western Region Office was launched on the ASU Tempe campus. ASU leads a partnership to assist public health authorities and partners in Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.

“We congratulate James and our Public Health Law and Policy Program for the phenomenal work that has been accomplished since the Network was launched two years ago,” said Douglas Sylvester, dean of the College of Law. “And we are confident that, with this generous funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, our regional office, specifically, and the network, more generally, will continue making great strides toward helping improve the public’s health.”

The Network for Public Health Law delivers technical assistance and provides education and training to public health officials at the local, state, federal and tribal levels by developing, implementing and enforcing laws to help solve public health problems.

Hodge is joined in the operation of the Western Region Office by Practice Director Clifford M. Rees in Santa Fe, N.M., their legal colleagues, Daniel G. Orenstein, Leila Barraza and Veda M. Collmer, and multiple student contributors at the college's Public Health Law and Policy Program.

Public health practitioners, legal counsel, and other public health leaders can access the Network for guidance at http://www.networkforphl.org/.