HU Law Professor honored as Fellow

Hamline University School of Law Associate Professor Laura Hermer, J.D., LL.M., has been chosen by Georgia State University College of Law and its Center for Law Health & Society as one of 10 faculty fellows to participate in the “Future of Public Health Law Education: Faculty Fellowship Program.”

Hermer and her nine colleagues chosen for the fellowship will develop interdisciplinary courses and programs in public health law at their respective universities during the fellowship year. Their projects will strengthen interdisciplinary education in public health law and promote collaborations with public health agencies and organizations in the fellows’ communities.

In connection with a new medical-legal partnership between Hamline Law and St. Paul’s United Family Medicine, Hermer will work with medical practitioners and Hamline Law students in a medical-law clinic to develop a new Hamline Law course examining the interrelationships between law, socioeconomic determinants of health and public health. The medical-legal partnership will offer legal services to lower-income United Family Medicine patients who have legal needs that directly or indirectly impact their health.

“The fellowship will bring me together with a select group of experienced public health law faculty from around the nation who are also developing cutting-edge, innovative public health curricula at their home institutions,” Hermer said. “Through the curriculum developed during my fellowship, Hamline Law students will work in partnership with an interdisciplinary group of health care and other professionals to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between the law, health and socioeconomic determinants of health, and acquire tools that will help them become effective advocates for their clients and social change.”