Colleen Healy Boufides

Anti-LGBTQ legislation across the country is at an all-time high. These laws and the prejudice they reflect have negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of gender diverse people. Recently, plaintiffs have successfully challenged some anti-transgender laws under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A recent case serves as an example of this novel approach and its potential to have a wide-sweeping impact on rights for people who are transgender, people who are disabled, and those who share both identities.

People who are incarcerated have higher rates of chronic health conditions; these conditions tend to worsen upon their release, primarily due to barriers to accessing health care. Despite evidence that Community Health Workers (CHWs) with lived experience of incarceration can help to improve outcomes for individuals reentering their communities, significant barriers impede hiring them to provide direct client care. Attend this webinar to learn about the legal barriers to hiring CHWs with incarceration histories and opportunities for policy change. 

In Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden, the Eleventh Circuit vacated a lower court decision invalidating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) transportation mask mandate. Because the mask mandate would have ended on its own terms when the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency expired on May 11, 2023, the Eleventh Circuit determined the case was moot. This Q&A describes the doctrine of mootness and the implications of this case.

People who are incarcerated have higher rates of chronic health conditions, which tend to worsen upon their release, primarily due to the barriers to health care they experience. Despite evidence that employing Community Health Workers with lived experience of incarceration to serve individuals reentering their communities leads to better patient outcomes, significant barriers impede hiring them within health systems.

Individuals returning from incarceration have more healthcare needs than the general population but face numerous barriers to receiving care. Specially trained community members with lived experience of incarceration, serving in the role of community health worker (CHW), are uniquely effective at engaging returning community members in health services. This issue brief provides examples of key legal barriers that may be encountered by individuals with incarceration histories who are seeking employment as CHWs along with ways in which policymakers and health systems can address these barriers.

Laws banning or heavily restricting students who are transgender from playing on athletic teams with students of the same gender are increasing, as are challenges to such laws. Human rights advocates are closely watching as one case, B.P.J. v. West Virginia, proceeds through the courts. The case’s outcome may influence the course of similar legal challenges across the country.

The Network is pleased to announce the appointments of Carrie Waggoner, J.D. and Colleen Healy Boufides, J.D. as the new Director and Co-Director of our Mid-States Region Office. They will jointly will lead the Mid-States team of law and policy experts in their ongoing work to support capacity building to public health departments and other entities to advance laws and policies that center equity, particularly in public health data sharing. Read the full announcement. 

In addressing questions regarding executive decision-making, we use the following general approach. Michigan’s Public Health Code grants public health officials considerable discretion to protect the public against communicable disease and environmental health threats. To exercise their broad grant of authority, the executive must ask three key questions: Can I? Must I? Should I?

This handbook explores the Flint Registry team’s specific experiences and challenges navigating federal and Michigan data laws. Nevertheless, many aspects of the Flint Registry experience can be generalized to guide other entities seeking to establish public health registries.

After thousands of Flint, Michigan, residents were exposed to lead during the 2014-15 Flint water crisis, the community came together to create the Flint Registry to monitor community health, connect people to services, and promote an understanding of how the water crisis affected the community. Establishing the Flint Registry required a team of community members and experts and involved myriad operational and legal issues. This webinar will examine the process involved in establishing and operating a community-based non-governmental environmental exposure registry. The presenters will share a legal handbook to guide other communities wishing to establish non-governmental public health registries.

Overview In most U.S. jurisdictions, legal protections for tenants include the right to habitable conditions, meaning that landlords are required to maintain…

Cultural Broker programs provide culturally relevant, community-based, accessible, preventive health care that is crucial to reducing health disparities and decreasing costs. However, legal frameworks and reimbursement models often fail to capture the essence of community-oriented preventive models of care.