Sara Rosenbaum
By Kristen Mitchell
George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health professor Sara Rosenbaum has received a prestigious award honoring her sustained commitment to the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) mission to improve health, accelerate health equity and provide independent, authoritative and trusted advice.
Professor Rosenbaum is the school’s Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and founding chair of the Department of Health Policy. Earlier this week, she was awarded the Adam Yarmolinsky Medal at the NAM’s annual meeting, an award for members from a discipline outside the health and medical sciences.
“It is such a deep honor to have been recognized by the National Academy of Medicine, and even more so because of who has received this award in the past and because it is given in honor of Adam Yarmolinsky, whose record of public service was so extraordinary,” Professor Rosenbaum said.
A lawyer by training, Professor Rosenbaum is a leading scholar of health law and public health, particularly related to the law governing health programs for the poor and medically underserved such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Since 1978, she has advised presidential administrations and Congress on issues ranging from national health reform and financing the health care safety net to child health policy and the application of federal civil rights laws to health care.
Lynn Goldman, the Michael and Lori Milken Dean of Public Health, said she could not be more proud of Professor Rosenbaum for receiving this honor.
“Sara is a pillar of the public health community and has dedicated her life to fighting for issues such as national health reform and financing the health care safety net to child health policy and the application of federal civil rights laws to health care,” she said. “Sara has been unwavering in her passion to lift up the underserved in this country and unfailing in her consistent efforts to make sure that children and minorities receive the medical care and concern they deserve."
Professor Rosenbaum's current research focuses on the transformation of Medicaid and its effects on low-income populations and communities. Her research also focuses on national health reform, Medicaid managed care and the nation’s community health centers, the largest primary health care system for medically underserved rural and urban populations. She is best known for her research into the impact of laws affecting health care access and coverage, as well as the potential effects of major shifts in laws affecting low income and medically-underserved populations.
Professor Rosenbaum became a member of the national academy in 2012. She also holds professorships in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, GW Law and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
