Dayna Bowen Matthew, Dean and Harold H. Green Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School, has been inducted into the National Academy of Medicine (NAM)—one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. The ceremony, held on Saturday, October 18, recognized leaders from across disciplines who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and service to public health.
Established in 1970, NAM—formerly the National Institute of Medicine—collaborates with the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering to provide independent, evidence-based analysis and advice to inform policy decisions, address complex health challenges, and promote research and education in science and medicine. Membership in NAM is among the most selective honors in the medical community, and Dean Matthew joins a distinguished group of experts that includes only a small number of professionals from fields such as law, engineering, social science, and the humanities.
“I am honored to join a group of medical scientists, social scientists, and health care experts who are dedicated to providing decision makers around the world with the data and information necessary to shape impactful, evidence-based policy that will catalyze better health outcomes for everyone everywhere,” Dean Matthew said. She added that the Academy’s interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to addressing issues such as vaccine policy, long-COVID, climate change, environmental injustice, and gun violence—each of which “threaten the health of the American people and America’s democracy.”
Dean Matthew is a nationally recognized leader in public health and civil rights law whose work examines the legal and structural causes of health disparities. Her books, Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care and Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America, have helped health professionals and policymakers alike confront the intersections of race, law, and health outcomes.
Her career reflects deep engagement with both policy and practice. In 2013, Dean Matthew co-founded the Colorado Health Equity Project, a medical-legal partnership incubator designed to remove barriers to good health for low-income individuals through legal representation and policy advocacy. Two years later, she served as Senior Adviser to the Director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she worked to expedite environmental justice cases on behalf of historically marginalized communities. Earlier in her career, she served as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow, working on the health policy team of Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
Dean Matthew serves on several national public health boards, including the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ COVID-19 Vaccine Working Group, the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, and the Scientific Advisory Council of the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts.
At GW Law, Dean Matthew leads the Health Law and Policy program, where she continues to teach and mentor students. She has been instrumental in creating interdisciplinary opportunities such as the new medical-legal partnership with the Milken Institute School of Public Health and Bread for the City, where law and public health students collaborate to improve patient outcomes by resolving legal barriers to care.
Reflecting on her induction, Dean Matthew expressed hope that her membership in NAM will further strengthen the connections between law, medicine, and policy. “We need the work of the National Academy of Medicine more than ever before,” she said, “and I look forward to contributing to its mission of improving health and healthcare for all.”