Students Propose Policy Alternatives for a Real-World Health Problem

In Spring 2020, students taking Professor Gakh's Public Health Policy course collaborated with a community partner on a service-learning project. Through this project students researched neonatal abstinence syndrome—a condition that can affect newborns exposed to drugs in utero. The students then generated and analyzed state-level policy alternatives that could be used to address this problem. The course concluded with students presenting the results of their research and analysis and making policy recommendations to the community partner. This class consisted of law students and graduate students from a variety of disciplines, many of whom had backgrounds in public health, medicine, and policy, who brought their diverse backgrounds and perspectives to the project.