Dr. April Shaw is a staff attorney at the Network’s Northern Region Office. She is interested in a variety of health equity issues as they relate to economic, gender, and racial disparities. She is particularly interested in thinking through how multiple inequities intersect to create systemic disparities. April was previously a Research Scholar at the Center for Public Health Law & Policy at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. She worked at the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School and, prior to that, as a senior law clerk at the Arizona Court of Appeals.
April received her J.D. with distinction from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 2015, and won the Sarah Weddington Writing Prize for New Student Scholarship in Reproductive Rights Law. She earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2010. There, she focused on social and political philosophy with an emphasis on gender and critical race theory.
This fact sheet addresses 988’s key features, including why it was adopted, current suicide trends and risks, covered provider obligations and timing, and some key features of recent supportive legislation.
Although there has been some attention to the mental health impacts of student loan debt, little attention has been directed towards the harm experienced by those with student loan debt who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges. These individuals have massive debt after pursuing an education that does not afford any of the opportunities typically associated with higher education. The harm they experience is not merely economic—it’s a social harm with deeply damaging impacts on mental health.
This webinar introduced participants to key principles in Indian law and Tribal public health law, discussed the impact of COVID-19 in Indian Country, and identified response strategies based upon practical experience.
Following the killing of George Floyd, localities have increasingly declared racism to be a public health emergency or crisis. Despite growing recognition of the fact that racism is a key contributor to poor health in communities of color, there is still insufficient attention to the role of policing and systemic racism as institutions that have powerful impacts on the health and well-being of people of color. This issue brief provides an assessment of how structural racism and policing function as critical social determinants of health for Black people and people of color generally.
This memo provides a series of frequently asked questions (FAQ) that the Network for Public Health Law has received and addressed in real-time concerning COVID-19 emergency legal preparedness and response organized into 4 major categories.
This issue brief examines evidence of racial disparities with respect to COVID-19 infections and deaths, possible causes, and legal protections against race discrimination. It also provides an overview of CSC planning, including key ethical features that may be utilized to ensure that CSC planning incorporates concerns about racial inequity.
This issue brief explains the Final Rule and how it altered the public charge analysis. It also addresses some common myths about the scope and applicability of the Final Rule and highlights public health concerns in the context of the chilling effect on the use of non-cash benefits.
This webinar provided an overview of the Final Rule, its anticipated impact, and a discussion of some core legal arguments submitted in federal district court on how the Final Rule conflicts with Congress’ health policy goals.
Title X is the only federally funded program for low-income patients exclusively dedicated to providing family planning and preventative services, including contraception and screenings for breast cancer, cervical cancer and STDs. Title X serves some four million people a year, most of them women. However, recent rule changes threaten to severely limit women’s access to these essential services.
