Professor Wendy K. Mariner

Wendy K. Mariner is Professor Emerita, Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights, at Boston University School of Public Health. Until 2021, she was the Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law at Boston University School of Public Health, Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law, and Professor of Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. She served as Professor in the Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights, Professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy & Management, and Director of the JD-MPH dual degree program at Boston University School of Public Health. Professor Mariner’s research focuses on laws governing health risks, including social and personal responsibility for risk creation, voting and elections as a social determinant of health, health insurance systems, implementation of the Affordable Care Act, ERISA, health information privacy, and population health policy. She has co-authored three editions of the law school textbook, PUBLIC HEALTH LAW, Third Edition (Wendy Mariner, George J Annas, Nicole Huberfeld & Michael Ulrich, 2019), Second Edition (Wendy Mariner & George J Annas, 2014), and First Edition (Ken Wing, Wendy Mariner, George Annas & Dan Strouse, 2007), and published more than 100 articles in the legal, medical and health policy literature on public health law, patients and consumers’ rights, health care reform, insurance benefits and regulation, AIDS policy, immunization, research with human beings, and reproductive rights. Professor Mariner is a Delegate to the American Bar Association's House of Delegates, and a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Disaster Response and Preparedness. She served as chair of the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice (2019-2020) and its Task Force on Fair Elections and Voting Rights. She served as a member of the ABA Task Force on Legal Issues in the Coronavirus Pandemic (2019-2021) and the ABA Special Committee on Bioethics and the Law. Professor Mariner also serves as Program Chair of the Program in Health Law & Human Rights, a joint project with the Public Health Regulations Analysis Center of the National School of Public Health of the New University of Lisbon. She has served on state, national, and international boards and commissions, including the Massachusetts Health Facilities Appeals Board, the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council Advisory Committee, the Massachusetts Health Information Technology Council Advisory Committee; the National Institutes of Health AIDS Advisory Committee, the Committee for the International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects, the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association, and Institute of Medicine committees. Her university activities included serving as Chair of the Boston University Faculty Council and ex officio member of the Trustees of Boston University, Co-Director of Regulatory Knowledge and Research Ethics of Boston University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and member of the Boston University Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion and other university committees. She was the American Journal of Public Health's Contributing Editor for Health Law and Ethics and currently serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law, the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, and the Human Rights and the Global Economy. With health law colleagues, she has submitted amicus curiae briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States in cases involving health law issues, including the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.