The Justice and Society Program, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is pleased to announce a new Excellence in State Public Health Law (ESPHL) program.  The one-year ESPHL program will consist of up to eight teams of eight members each. Over the course of the year, each team will focus on exploring, identifying, and evaluating how law and policy can advance one of their respective state’s health priorities.

The goal of the ESPHL program is to provide education and other resources that will enable policymakers and agencies to more effectively address public health issues and to become leaders in creating healthier states.  The program will strengthen public health law collaborations among state officials and state-level policy-makers, and will increase these leaders’ effectiveness on public health issues in their respective states, including working across party lines and government agencies and branches.

The ESPHL program is pleased to announce our Advisory Committee. The Committee, composed of distinguished individuals from the field of state government and public health, will assist ESPHL in the team selection process, participate in the August leadership retreat, and link participating teams to resources for technical assistance.

Advisory Committee Members are:

Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director, American Public Health Association

Hon. James Douglas, Executive in Residence at Middlebury College and former Governor of Vermont

Susan Gerard, Chair, Maricopa County Special Health Care District Board of Directors, former Arizona lawmaker and state Health Director

Hon. Christine Gregoire, Governor of Washington State, 2005-2013

Richard Hamburg, Deputy Director, Trust for America’s Health

Dr. Paul Jarris, Executive Director, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials

Martha King, Group Director, Health Policy Federal Affairs, National Council of State Legislatures

Carmen Hooker Odom, Advisor to the President of the Milbank Memorial Fund

Robert Pestronk, Executive Director National Association of County and City Officials (NACCHO)

The 2013 ESPHL application period is now closed.

The ESPHL program begins August 1, 2013.