Emely Sanchez

Across the country, states and localities are using a variety of strategies to assess the health, equity, and racial impacts of legislative and administrative policies. Recognizing the need for a health equity assessment tool, the Health Equity Network of Ohio recently launched an analytic tool to support implementation of a Health and Equity in All Policies approach in Ohio. In this Q & A, two of the tools’ drafters discuss the opportunities the tools presents to advance health equity in their state.

A competent and diverse public health law workforce is essential to accomplishing health equity goals. Yet the public health law field—like the public health field generally—has struggled to create and maintain a robust and racially diverse workforce. Several barriers to entering the field, such as financial impediments, historic and persistent racial disparities that create a lack of mentorship for young attorneys of color, and a dearth of full-time, accessible job opportunities, may hint at possible approaches to expanding and strengthening the public health law workforce for the future.

Following the development and authorization of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, the Biden administration enacted a series of vaccine mandates in 2021. The most significant of these mandates applied to (1) federal workers and contractors, (2) large employers, and (3) health care workers.