Charlottesville Beyond the Headlines

Infinite Earth Radio – weekly conversations with leaders building smarter, more sustainable, and equitable communities

Topic:

Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Environmental Justice and Equitable Development Series – current political climate in Charlottesville and beyond

Guest & Organization:

Dayna Bowen Matthew is the William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law and F. Palmer Weber Research Professor of Civil Liberties and Human Rights at the University of Virginia. Matthew is a leader in public health who focuses on racial disparities in health care. She joined the Virginia faculty in 2017. She is the author of the book “Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care.”

Matthew previously served on the University of Colorado law faculty as a professor, vice dean and associate dean of academic affairs. She was a member of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities on the Anschutz Medical Campus and held a joint appointment at the Colorado School of Public Health.

She has also taken on many public policy roles. Matthew worked with a law firm partner in 2013 to found the Colorado Health Equity Project, a medical-legal partnership incubator aimed at removing barriers to good health for low-income clients by providing legal representation, research and policy advocacy. In 2015 she served as the senior adviser to the director of the Office of Civil Rights for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she expedited cases on behalf of historically vulnerable communities besieged by pollution. She then became a member of the health policy team for U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and worked on public health issues.

During 2015 and 2016 she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow, in residence in Washington, D.C., and pivoted her work toward population-level clients. She forged relationships with influential policy groups such as the Brookings Institution, where she is currently a non-resident senior fellow, and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Resources:

Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care

University of Virginia School of Law