Public health law is a broad field with several areas of concern: what are the legal authorities and issues that support the work of the public health system; how does law affect health as one of the social determinants of health; and how can we better understand the relationship between legal interventions and specific health outcomes, i.e. public health law research. My research has focused on two specific areas: the First Amendment and health and climate change and human health.

I currently am interested in understanding how the legal system needs to be adapted in the context of health law in order to confront the realities of anthropogenic climate change and its impact on human health. The issues of governance and of organization are exceedingly complex and the adaptation requirements of the public health and health care systems are deeply intertwined with law and policy.

My work in this area has focused on how art can be used by communities to make meaning of disease and illness. My current work in this area explores the relationships between health, meaning-making and art in the area of climate change as well as the cultural definitions of health and their implications for law. The humanities and meaning-making will be key to grappling with the implications of anthropogenic climate change and will drive how our legal and public health systems adapt to and respond to the challenges.

Higher education can and should play a core role in how our society meets the challenge of the Anthropocene. These institutions play a critical role not only in their traditional educational role and in research, but also a civic institutions. Institutions of higher education can be partners in governance and community resiliency supporting our communities as resiliency hubs, technical advisors, employers, as community educators outside the context of degrees, and in applied research.