Join the NIU College of Law for the next Race and the Law Conversation, “Racial Disparities in Health Law” on Wednesday, April 12 at 6:00 p.m. (CST) with Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew from George Washington University Law School and Attorney Apriel Powell who is an associate general counsel for a global managed care company overseeing Medicaid matters. NIU Law Professor Meredith Geller will moderate.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. CST
Register Now for this virtual Event via Zoom
About this Event
The NIU College of Law Race and the Law Conversations series provide a platform with expert panelists who will engage in much needed conversations on a wide range of racial and social justice issues including, but limited to, racial inequality, police brutality, mass incarceration, voting rights, environmental justice, and immigration.
-PANELISTS-
Dayna Bowen Matthew
Dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law
George Washington University Law School
Dayna Bowen Matthew, JD, PhD, is the Dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School. A leader in public health and civil rights law who focuses on disparities in health, health care, and the social determinants of health, Dean Matthew joined GW Law in 2020. She is the author of the bestselling book Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care and the newly released Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America.
Dean Matthew also has taken on many public policy roles. In 2013, she co-founded 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 US 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 US Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and worked on public health issues.
She also is a member of the American Law Institute and currently serves on several 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
Before entering academia, Dean Matthew practiced as a civil litigator both in Kentucky, at the law firm of Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald, and in Virginia, at McGuireWoods, where her work primarily focused on the defense of medical care providers and corporate manufacturers in state courts, federal courts, and before administrative and licensing tribunals.
Dean Matthew graduated with an AB in economics from Harvard-Radcliffe and, after a brief stint as a commercial real estate banker, obtained a JD from the University of Virginia. While studying at Virginia, Dean Matthew served as an Editor of the Virginia Law Review, won the law school’s William Minor Lile Moot Court Competition, and taught as a Hardy Dillard Writing Fellow. Following graduation, she clerked for Justice John Charles Thomas, the first African American justice to sit on the Virginia Supreme Court. She taught at Virginia as an assistant professor from 1991 to 1994. In 2018, she received a PhD in health and behavioral sciences from the University of Colorado at Denver.
Apriél Powell
Attorney, Health Law Expert
Attorney Apriél Powell is a health law attorney, practicing almost exclusively in the field for over 15 years upon graduating from Thurgood Marshall School of Law and becoming licensed attorney that same year in 2006.
Her clients have included 3 of the major member health care systems in the world-renowned Houston Medical Center. Ms. Powell’s scope of work has included legal representation of physicians, academic medical institutions, tertiary health care institutions, correction (inmate) care, and large health insurance payors. Her work in transactional and regulatory matters in HIPAA, physician contracting, and risk management has allowed her to be featured as a panelist for Texas Bar of Minority Counsel CLES, Council of Black Women Physicians, and other professional organizations. She currently is a member-advisor of her employer’s DEI Council.
During the initial period of COVID, Ms. Powell appeared as a guest on nationally syndicated talk radio to inform listeners about the inequities in dispensing and communicating COVID treatment options and the legal considerations of patient care during the Public Health Emergency. Her segment was listed as a top feature in 2021 with over 3 million listeners. Apriél and her sister, internist Adrianne Powell, MD have partnered together to host Powell Power Hour bloginars to include a variety of clinical-medical issues and been featured at global corporate auxiliary retreats.
Apriél is proud to be named a 2021 Distinguished Alumni of Thurgood Marshall School of Law, where she is now in her second semester of teaching Health Law to third-year law students.
