Solomon Center Welcomes New and Returning Faculty and Fellows
The Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School will continue its momentum coming out of the 2018–2019 academic year in 2019–2020. The Center is welcoming new and returning key staff, affiliates, and faculty.
Ryan Thoreson ’14 has joined the Solomon Center as a Research Fellow. Thoreson will be leading research and advocacy efforts for the Center on LGBTQI+ health including some of its ongoing projects on the Affordable Care Act and partnering with the pediatric gender clinic medical legal partnership. He is also the Robert M. Cover-Allard K. Lowenstein Fellow in International Human Rights at Yale Law School and a researcher with Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program in New York City, where he was a Bernstein Human Rights Fellow from 2015-2017. Thoreson's work focuses on LGBT children’s rights and LGBT rights in the United States and he brings experience working with a number of LGBT NGOs in the U.S. and abroad. He is also the author of Transnational LGBT Activism: Working for Sexual Rights Worldwide, published by the University of Minnesota Press. “Ryan is a fantastic addition to our team at the Solomon Center,” said Solomon Center Executive Director Katie Kraschel, “He’s already been instrumental in working with our students to submit comments in response to proposed regulations that could jeopardize access to care for transgender patients across the country.”
Dr. Gregory Curfman rejoins the center as its Senior Advisor and Physician-Scholar in Residence after taking a year away to settle into his new role as the Deputy Editor at the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Dr. Curfman is a leading voice on health policy and is published widely in the top medical journals and publications at the intersection of health care, law and policy. Dr. Curfman previously served as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) for 28 years (most recently as its executive editor). He also served as the editor in chief of Harvard Health Publications, the publishing division of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Curfman is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Medical School, and is a board-certified cardiologist and internist.
Dr. Curfman’s work and mentorship with the Center have led to numerous publications, the vast majority of which have been authored or coauthored by Law School students. He has hit the ground running over the summer when he coauthored two pieces in the JAMA with student fellow Mitch Johnston ’20 and Executive Director Katie Kraschel.
Thanks to the generous support of Adrienne Drell ’92 M.S.L. and Franklin Nitikman ’66 LL.B. in funding the YLS Elder Law Project, the Center will also welcome Professor Nina Kohn and Kevin Cremin ’00 to co-teach Elder Law this spring. Kohn is the David M. Levy Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Online Education at Syracuse University College of Law, and a national expert on elder law. Cremin, who taught mental health and disability law at the Law School in Fall 2017, is the Director of Litigation for Disability and Aging Rights at Mobilization for Justice, formerly MFY Legal Services, Inc. Also this spring, the Center welcomes back Mark Barnes ’84, Visiting Lecturer in Law, to teach Health Law. Aaron Kesselheim, J.D., M.D., will return as a Distinguished Visitor to teach FDA Law this fall.
The Center also continues its successful partnership with the Consortium for the Advanced Study of Brain Injury (CASBI) at Rockefeller University and the Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Joseph Fins, the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Medicine, Bioethics, and Law, returns to lead that partnership along with Research Fellow Zach Shapiro.
