April Shaw, Ph.D., J.D., is the Deputy Director in the Network’s Health Equity Team. She has expertise in breaking down the policy impacts of laws and illuminating how theory can inform practice. She also has expertise in racial health equity and is especially interested in thinking through how multiple inequities intersect to create systemic disparities. Some of her areas of focus include mental health, suicide prevention, cultural healing and safety, and climate justice. April has worked as the Research Scholar at the Center for Public Health Law & Policy at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and at the Project on Predatory Lending at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law school, writing white papers to assist with defrauded students’ defense to student loan repayment claims. She has also worked as a senior law clerk at the Arizona Court of Appeals drafting court opinions and memorandum.
April earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder, specializing in social and political philosophy with a focus on gender and racial justice. She wrote her dissertation on severe global poverty and human rights. April received her J.D. with distinction from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, winning first place in the 2015 Sara Weddington Writing Prize for New Student Scholarship in Reproductive Rights Law, a national writing contest.
This resource is a short practical guide for understanding why cultural safety must drive community engagement and how it can be prioritized in emergency management and response during climate-driven emergencies.
As the climate crisis continues to accelerate, public health departments must work with communities to create mitigation and prevention measures to protect health. Government entities often seek guidance on how to meaningfully engage communities and on what solutions will best support underserved communities. Community members need accessible open processes and solutions that will help communities at the frontline of climate change. To support this work, we have created a toolkit on community-centered emergency response and preparedness and a toolkit on community-centered solutions to extreme heat.
In honor of Black History Month, Network attorneys and staff have highlighted six policies that have the power to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes for Black people and communities of color throughout the United States. This policy brief serves as a practical tool to help public health professionals, leaders, and partners share strategies that can advance, rather than threaten, Black health and wellbeing over the long-term.
The new dialing code 988, which provides direct access to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Veterans Crisis Line, is expected to increase mental health and suicide prevention support across the nation. This webinar will provide insight into national policy issues impacting 988 and a deep state-focused dive on 988 implementation in Nebraska. The goal of the webinar is to help those working on 988 implementation gain insight into shared learnings as states and others think through their own processes and equity considerations.
In the debate about how to incorporate cultural differences (which are often deeply intertwined with racial identity) into dominant social structures to create just outcomes, cultural healing often receives little attention. Cultural healing reconnects people to the vibrancy and strengths of their culture and in doing so, enhances health and wellness. However, embedding cultural healing practices will require legal reforms that institutionalize culturally inclusive practices.
This resource assesses suicide risk among communities of color and demonstrates why the demands of racial health equity require taking the problem of police violence seriously and creating systems that reduce contact with police. It also identifies opportunities for limiting the role of law enforcement in suicide prevention and law and policy pathways for how commitments set forth in declarations of racism as a public health crisis can be put into action.
The Network for Public Health Law is accepting applications for the Climate Change, Health Equity, and Public Health Law Learning and Practice Collaborative (Climate LPC) – a learning and practice collaborative for partners interested in the intersection of climate change and health equity to discuss law and policy solutions to mitigate public health impacts from climate change.
by Overview 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. EST | November 16, 2021The Network will be launching applications for our Climate Change, Health Equity, and…
The Network for Public Health Law is pleased to announce this call for applications from organizations seeking legal and policy support to promote racial health equity.
There has been a well-publicized attempt across the nation to stop the teaching of “critical race theory” through state legislation, lawsuits, pressure by parents at school board meetings, and other means. A consequence of this legally imposed silence is that persistent, obvious, and consistent patterns of inequality are portrayed as random and individualized rather than resulting from a social system organized around racial and gender lines. This runs counter to a public health approach which is based on understanding how systems impact whole populations.
by Overview 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET | July 29, 2021While the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health policy remains…
The following guidance document can help guide stakeholders in developing and implementing declarations as well as thinking through broader issues connected to race and racism.
