AUWCL Launches New Health Law and Policy Program

The Program solidifies AUWCL as a destination for health law and policy studies in Washington, D.C.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2017 –American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL) has launched a new Health Law and Policy Program led by Professor Lindsay F. Wiley and Senior Fellow for Health Law and Policy Asha B. Scielzo. The Program solidifies AUWCL as a destination for health law and policy studies in Washington, D.C.

“At a time when health care is on the minds of many in Washington, D.C., and throughout the country, we are proud to announce a new Health Law and Policy Program to help address some of the most important issues in the field,” said Dean Camille Nelson.

AUWCL’s Health Law and Policy Program will bring the practice of health law directly into the classroom, ensuring that JD, LL.M., and SJD students graduate practice-ready and connected to opportunities in the field. Students benefit from a depth of health law course offerings and year-round externship opportunities that few law schools are able to match, including courses in health law and policy, food and drug law, health care privacy and data security, health care fraud and abuse, health care business transactions, health care regulatory compliance, medical malpractice, bioethics, public health law, and global health law. While JD students in other parts of the country are typically limited to summer or a single semester in Washington, AUWCL students build their expertise through multiple externships and internships in local, state, federal, or international government agencies, public interest organizations, trade associations, lobbying groups, and nonprofit hospital systems throughout their second and third years of law school.

The Health Law and Policy Program will build on and expand AUWCL’s existing strengths in health law and policy. The Program will encompass AUWCL’s successful Health Law & Policy Summer Institute, which recently completed its tenth year. The Institute, which is open to legal professionals and students from other schools, offers courses led by expert practitioners that delve into the legal, regulatory, policy, and compliance implications of up-to-the-minute developments in this dynamic field. The Health Law and Policy Program will support AUWCL’s longstanding student-run organizations, the Health Law and Policy Student Association and the Health Law and Policy Brief. The Program will also foster faculty and student collaboration on research in all areas of health care law, including access to health care, food and drug law, mental health law, health disparities, access to medicines, medical malpractice, and the rights of people with disabilities.

The Health Law and Policy Program will be a hub for national conferences, beginning with “Next Steps in Health Reform 2017” hosted by the AUWCL Health Law and Policy Program Oct. 26-28, and jointly sponsored by AUWCL, American University’s Kogod Business School, American University’s School of Public Affairs, the University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy and Governance, and the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. The conference will feature keynote addresses from new American University President and former Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Representative Henry Waxman.

Professor Wiley, the Director of AUWCL’s Health Law and Policy Program, is president-elect of the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics (ASLME), a nonprofit, educational organization for scholars, teachers, and professionals at the intersection of law, policy, medicine, public health, nursing, and ethics and the primary association for health law professors at schools of law, medicine, public health, nursing, business, and social work. Professor Wiley’s research focuses on health justice, health care access, and public health law. She joined the AUWCL faculty in 2010 and teaches torts, the health law and policy survey course, and a public health law writing seminar. 

Scielzo, AUWCL's Senior Fellow for Health Law and Policy and Director of the Health Law and Policy Summer Institute, serves on the Board of Directors of the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA), the nation’s largest, nonpartisan educational organization devoted to legal issues in the health care field. She has also served for many years as Chair of the planning committee for the annual AHLA Fundamentals of Health Law Conference. As a practitioner, Professor Scielzo concentrates her practice on healthcare regulatory counseling, with expertise in fraud and abuse and reimbursement considerations and their impact on day-to-day operations, corporate compliance, and transactions.  She is a frequent speaker and author, who teaches courses on health care fraud and abuse, business transactions, and compliance.

 

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In 1896, American University Washington College of Law became the first law school in the country founded by women. More than 100 years since its founding, this law school community is grounded in the values of equality, diversity, and intellectual rigor. The law school's nationally and internationally recognized programs (in clinical legal education, trial advocacy, international law, and intellectual property to name a few) and dedicated faculty provide its JD, LL.M., and SJD students with the critical skills and values to have an immediate impact as students and as graduates, in Washington, D.C. and around the world. For more information, visit wcl.american.edu.

 

CONTACT: Franki Fitterer
Director, Public Relations
Washington College of Law
office: (202) 274-4279
cell: (202) 321-6183
email: ffitterer@wcl.american.edu