Dr. Sara Wilensky, Special Services Faculty member for Undergraduate Education and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education, “leads projects on safety net issues, focusing on the financing and access-to-care barriers faced by vulnerable and underserved populations.” Professor Wilensky has a PhD in Public Policy from GW, but also happens to have a JD from the University of Pennsylvania. From her Public Policy and Law background, Dr. Wilensky incites and advances deeper understandings about the complicated areas within Public Health.
While Dr. Wilensky teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, one of the courses she teaches this semester is Public Health 2117. Even though this is a Public Health course, it “is appropriate for public health and non-public health students alike.” In the course, “students volunteer at public health-related service sites and connect their service experience to course work relating to serving vulnerable populations.” As a Public Health service-learning course, “this course uses a service-learning model based on reflection and reciprocity.” So far, Dr. Wilensky’s students have served more than 300 hours. To see which community partners students are serving with, please click here.
Recently, Dr. Wilensky co-authored Essentials of Health Law and Policy. Part I, “Setting the Stage: An Overview of Health Policy and Law,” discusses “Understanding the Role of and Conceptualizing Health Policy and Law,” “Policy and the Policymaking Process,” “Law and the Legal System,” an “Overview of the United States Healthcare System,” “Public Health Institution and Systems,” while Part II, “Essential Issues in Health Policy and Law,” discusses “Individual Rights in Health Care and Public Health,” “Social Determinants of Health and the Role of Law in Optimizing Health,” “Understanding Health Insurance,” “Health Economics in a Health Policy Context,” “Health Reform in the United States,” and beyond (iv-vi). To view the rest of the text, please click here. To view purchasing options, please click here.
We are honored to have Dr. Ramos serve as a Nashman Affiliate. To learn more about Community Engaged Scholarship course designation, please click here.
