Daniel E. Dawes J.D.

Daniel E. Dawes, J.D., is a widely respected healthcare and public health leader, health equity & policy expert, educator, and researcher who currently serves as Senior Vice President, Global Health & Executive Director of the Global Health Equity Institute at Meharry Medical College. Dawes is also the future Founding Dean of the School of Global Public Health at Meharry Medical College, which will be the first school of public health at an historically black institution. Prior to that he served as executive director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine and is a professor of health law, policy and management.

He is the author of two groundbreaking books, 150 Years of ObamaCare and The Political Determinants of Health, both published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Among his many achievements, he was an instrumental figure in developing and negotiating the Mental Health Parity Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, and the Affordable Care Act’s health equity-focused provisions, among other landmark federal policies, as well as the principal investigator for the nation’s first health equity tracker, co-founder of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN), and co-principal investigator of the HHS National COVID-19 Resiliency Network. Professor Dawes is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.

He serves as an advisor to The White House COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, an appointed member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee to the Director and co-chair of the CDC’s Health Equity Working Group, as well as the NIH’s National Advisory Council for Nursing Research.