Daniel E. Dawes, JD, a widely respected author, scholar, educator, and leader in the health equity, health reform, and mental health movements. He is leading the Health Equity Institute in the School of Global Public Health at Meharry Medical College where he is generating a strategic plan to launch the future School, which will be the first school of its kind at a historically Black college or university.

Professor Dawes is the former executive director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia and a professor of health law, policy, and management. He is also the co-founder of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN), which is a nationwide network of over 2000 governmental and non-governmental leaders and scholars focused on bolstering leadership and the exchange of research, information, and solutions to advance evidence-based health equity-focused policies and programs.

Professor Dawes’s research focuses on the drivers of health inequities among under-resourced, vulnerable, and marginalized communities, most notably the political determinants of health. He brings a forward-thinking, inclusive, and multidisciplinary approach to health policy, authoring two groundbreaking books, 150 Years of ObamaCare and The Political Determinants of Health, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, which have received critical acclaim and rave reviews. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Google.org, the CDC Foundation, Contakt World, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, and Gilead Sciences, Professor Dawes has led projects in the United States intended to address the disproportionate impact of health inequities on people of color, rural populations, people with disabilities, and other disparate populations. He is currently the principal investigator on three major projects intended to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations, including the establishment of a strategic network of national, state, territorial, tribal, and local organizations in the United States known as the National COVID-19 Resiliency Network and the development of a comprehensive data platform to track health inequities and their social and political determinants.

Professor Dawes serves or served on several boards, commissions, and councils focused on improving health outcomes and elevating health equity in the United States and around the world, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Federal Advisory Committee on Health Disparities, National Center for Civil and Human Rights - Health and Human Rights Institute Advisory Committee, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Policies for Action National Advisory Committee, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health National Advisory Council, the National Football League/National Football League Players Association National Committee on the Racial Disparities of COVID-19, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Vaccine Consultation Panel.