Kathleen Hoke, J.D., serves as Director, Eastern Region, a position she has held since the Network launched in 2010. She is also a law school professor and director of the Legal Resource Center for Public Health Policy at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law.

As director of the Network’s Eastern Region Office, Kathleen oversees work on a myriad of issues, including injury prevention; housing law and policy; regulation of cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco; food security; maternal and child health; and oral health. She brings her expertise on the sources and scope of state and local public health powers to work in examining recent changes in laws impacting public health authority that have been proposed and passed in response to public health agency action during the pandemic. She has also guided the Eastern Region’s work in supporting public health officials in understanding and seeking better laws to deter and penalize those who threaten public health officials. The work of the Eastern Region Office, and the Network as a whole, centers on health equity with a deep focus on law and policy that diminishes the detrimental impact of structural racism.

Kathleen was given the UMB President’s Award for Excellence in 2020 and in 2016 received the Jennifer Robbins Award for the Practice of Public Health Law by the American Public Health Association Law Section. Since 2020, Kathleen has served on the editorial board of the Centers for Disease and Control publication, Preventing Chronic Disease. She serves a variety of professional organizations and was appointed by Maryland’s Governor to the Maryland State Council on Cancer Control from 2018 to 2022.

After receiving her B.S. from Towson University, Kathleen graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif from the University of Maryland School of Law. She completed a clerkship with the Honorable Lawrence Rodowsky of the Maryland Court of Appeals and served with distinction as an Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant to the Attorney General of Maryland prior to joining the University of Maryland Carey School of Law.

Articles & Resources

Improving Financial Literacy to Improve Health and Reduce Health Inequities One High School Graduate at a Time

Law & Policy InsightsMechanisms for Advancing Health Equity

February 6, 2024
by Kathleen Hoke

Financial capability (financial literacy coupled with access to economic opportunity) has a positive, long-term effect on health. However, many people living in the margins financially are not adequately equipped with financial education and training to make the most of their employment or other financial resources. Over the past decade, states have increasingly adopted legislation requiring students in public schools to pass personal finance courses in order to graduate high school.

Read more

Innovative Use of Federal Power to Protect Tenants from Eviction

Law & Policy InsightsHealthy and Affordable HousingMechanisms for Advancing Public HealthMechanisms for Advancing Health Equity

December 12, 2023
by Kathleen Hoke

With the recission of the federal declaration of public health emergency, tenants lost some protections from the CARES Act and related federal policies. Proposals in the Biden Administration’s Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights provides avenues to support tenants in housing and project based rental assistance and expands those protections as negotiated measures between Freddie Mac and the landlord community.

Read more

Reproductive Health Care, Litigation, Privacy and Public Health

WebinarsReproductive Health and Equity Maternal and Child Health

November 30, 2023
by Joanna S. Suder, Kathleen Hoke and Stephen Murphy

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eviscerated 50 years of precedent and constitutional rights to abortion. States have since adopted widely divergent reproductive health care access policies, illustrating serious legal questions remaining post-Roe. Attend this webinar for the latest information on litigation in state courts regarding reproductive health care access through state constitutions and statutes; an update on how states are protecting reproductive health records through data privacy laws; and how local health departments are serving their communities in the post-Roe landscape.

View page

Renters Bill of Rights: Education, Enforcement, and Enhancement of Rights

Law & Policy InsightsHealthy and Affordable HousingMechanisms for Advancing Public HealthMechanisms for Advancing Health Equity

August 22, 2023
by Kathleen Hoke

The Biden Administration’s Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights (Blueprint) was introduced on January 25, 2023 to drive action at the federal, state, and local levels to strengthen tenant protections and housing affordability. One of the principles outlined in the Blueprint is that governmental bodies should do all they can to enforce fair housing laws, protect renters from unlawful discrimination, and ensure renters know their legal rights.

Read more

Renters Bill of Rights: Clear and Fair Leases

Law & Policy InsightsHealthy and Affordable HousingMechanisms for Advancing Public HealthMechanisms for Advancing Health Equity

August 8, 2023
by Kathleen Hoke

The Biden Administration’s Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights (Blueprint) was introduced on January 25, 2023 to drive action at the federal, state, and local levels to strengthen tenant protections and housing affordability. One of the principles outlined in the Blueprint is that renters should have clear and fair leases, with defined rental terms, rights, and responsibilities written in simple and clear language.

Read more

Black Maternal Health in Pennsylvania

Fact SheetReproductive Health and Equity Maternal and Child HealthHealth and Health CarePennsylvania

May 11, 2023
by Kathleen Hoke

Black Maternal Health refers to the well-being of Black women during the prenatal period, pregnancy, and the postnatal period. Black women in the United States experience significantly disparate maternal health outcomes including disproportionately high rates of death related to pregnancy or childbirth compared to other racial and ethnic groups. This fact provides an overview of the state of Black maternal health in Pennsylvania and opportunities to improve Black health outcomes in the state.

View page

Black Maternal Health in New Jersey 

Fact SheetReproductive Health and Equity Maternal and Child HealthHealth and Health CareNew Jersey

May 11, 2023
by Kathleen Hoke

Black Maternal Health refers to the well-being of Black women during the prenatal period, pregnancy, and the postnatal period. Black women in the United States experience significantly disparate maternal health outcomes including disproportionately high rates of death related to pregnancy or childbirth compared to other racial and ethnic groups. This fact provides an overview of the state of Black maternal health in New Jersey and opportunities to improve Black health outcomes in the state.

View page

Black Maternal Health in Maryland 

Fact SheetReproductive Health and Equity Maternal and Child HealthHealth and Health CareMaryland

May 11, 2023
by Kathleen Hoke

Black Maternal Health refers to the well-being of Black women during the prenatal period, pregnancy, and the postnatal period. Black women in the United States experience significantly disparate maternal health outcomes including disproportionately high rates of death related to pregnancy or childbirth compared to other racial and ethnic groups. This fact provides an overview of the state of Black maternal health in Maryland and opportunities to improve Black health outcomes in the state.

View page

Six Policies that Advance Black Health and Wellbeing

Policy BriefMechanisms for Advancing Public HealthCivic Engagement and VotingMechanisms for Advancing Health EquityReproductive Health and Equity 

February 23, 2023
by April Shaw, Betsy Lawton, Dawn Hunter, Jennifer Piatt, Kathleen Hoke, Mosalewa Ani and Sara Rogers

In honor of Black History Month, Network attorneys and staff have highlighted six policies that have the power to reduce health disparities and improve outcomes for Black people and communities of color throughout the United States. This policy brief serves as a practical tool to help public health professionals, leaders, and partners share strategies that can advance, rather than threaten, Black health and wellbeing over the long-term.

View page

Renters Bill of Rights – Access to Safe, Quality, Accessible, and Affordable Housing and the Right to Organize

Law & Policy InsightsHealthy and Affordable HousingFood and Housing Insecurity Measures

February 21, 2023
by Kathleen Hoke

Maryland’s Abortion Care Access Act is the first of its kind in the U.S. The new law expands the scope of practice for certain health care providers to allow them to provide abortion care, aims to increase provider diversity through training programs, and improves affordability and equity by requiring insurance coverage for abortion care. Experience and evaluation will help determine whether it is effective at improving safe, convenient, and equitable access to abortion care in Maryland. If so, it could serve as a model for other states looking to increase access, improve patient outcomes, and reduce health inequities.

Read more

COVID-19 FAQs for Michigan Local Health Departments

FAQMichiganMid-States RegionPublic Health Advocacy and Decision-MakingPublic Health Authority

September 29, 2022
by Carrie Waggoner, Colleen Healy Boufides, Denise Chrysler, Jennifer Piatt, Kathleen Hoke, Peter D. Jacobson and Sallie Milam

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?

View page