Panel 1: Youth Mental Health and Access to Care
Moderator: Thomas Williams, J.D.
Speakers:
Yael Cannon, J.D.
Ana Caskin, M.D.
Ana M. Caskin, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine and is Medical Director of School Based Health at MedStar Medical Group. She also serves as Deputy Medical Director for the Georgetown University Health Justice Alliance, a medical-legal partnership serving children in Wards 4, 7 and 8 of Washington DC. Dr. Caskin is a native Washingtonian and earned her BA and MD from the University of Virginia. She trained as a resident in pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital. She has lived most of her life in Washington DC and looks forward to DC Statehood and finally getting votes in both houses of the US Congress.
Marisa Parrella, LICSW, LCSW-C
Marisa Parrella, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Washington DC and Maryland, has spent over 25 years working on behalf of mental health for children and families of color. First as a child therapist, then as a clinical supervisor, program designer, and advocate, Ms. Parrella has been a leader in the delivery of children’s mental health services in Washington, DC, particularly in the school setting. Ms. Parrella was appointed to the Mayor’s Task Force to reimagine school mental health in Washington, DC which developed the Comprehensive Plan for School Mental Health in Washington, DC. Ms. Parrella is passionate about recruiting, training, and sustaining the highest quality mental health workforce in Washington DC schools. Most recently she founded The MOMENTUM Residency which provides comprehensive equity focused professional development and job placement for school mental health practitioners in K-12 DC public schools in Washington, DC
Tomar Pierson-Brown, J.D.
Tomar Pierson-Brown is an Assistant Professor of Law, and the Director of the Health Law Certificate Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Pierson-Brown teaches civil procedure and education law. Her research applies elements of systems thinking and design approaches to address challenges in legal education and in health justice. Prior to serving as Assistant Professor, Pierson-Brown was an Associate Clinical Professor of Law and directed Pitt Law’s Health Law Clinic, a medical-legal partnership, for eight years. Pierson-Brown served as Pitt Law’s first Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusive Excellence. Pierson-Brown earned her JD from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and her LL.M from the University of the District of Columbia – David A. Clarke School of Law.
Panel 2: The U.S. Educational System and Social Determinants of Health for Youth
Moderator: Angi Porter, J.D.
Speakers:
Nicole Pryor Tuchinda, J.D., M.D., LLM
Nicole Tuchinda (she/her/hers), LLM, JD, MD, is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Health Law Program at the College of Law of Loyola University New Orleans. She teaches Health Law, Disability and the Law, Children and the Law, and Torts. Her scholarship, which has been published by journals including New York University Law Review, focuses on preventing and healing childhood trauma; social determinants of health; education; disability; and health justice. She directed the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia and was a founding co-fellow of the Health Justice Alliance, a medical-legal partnership clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. She was an associate at Ropes & Gray, LLP and Associate Chief Counsel for Enforcement at U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She has an LL.M. from Georgetown University; M.D. from Johns Hopkins University; J.D. from George Washington University; and a B.A. from Yale College.
Thalia González, J.D.
Thalia González is a Professor of Law, Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair and faculty co-director of the Center for Racial and Economic Justice at UC Law SF (formerly UC Hastings). Additionally, she is a Senior Scholar in the UCSF/UC Law SF Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy and, since 2017, a Senior Scholar in the Center on Gender Justice and Opportunity at Georgetown Law. Professor González teaches and writes extensively in the fields of education law, health justice, civil rights, restorative justice, and critical race theory. Her work has been supported by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and Atlantic Philanthropies. Professor González is Vice President of the Board of Directors for Public Health Advocates.
Rachel Perera, Ph.D
James Huguley, Ed.D
Lunch Keynote:
Rep. Arvind Venkat, M.D.
Rep. Arvind Venkat, an emergency physician, was elected to serve his first term in the state House of Representatives in November 2022. He is the first Indian American to be elected to the state House and the first physician to serve in the General Assembly in nearly 60 years. He serves as State Representative for the 30th Legislative District, which includes part of Hampton Township, and all of McCandless, Franklin Park, Ohio Township, Emsworth, Ben Avon, Ben Avon Heights, and Kilbuck. Rep. Venkat is a fighter for accessible and affordable healthcare, investing in our first responders, protecting reproductive rights, curbing gun violence, expanding access to the ballot box for all voters, and getting more people back into the workforce. Rep. Venkat completed his undergraduate and graduate education at Harvard University, his medical education at Yale University, and his emergency medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati/University Hospital. He served as a member of the Board of the McCandless-Franklin Park Ambulance Authority and is a former president of the state emergency physicians organization.
Panel 3: Advancing Access to Care for LGBTQ+ Youth
Moderator: Andrew Budzinski, J.D.
Speakers:
Harry Barbee, PhD
Alejandra Caraballo, J.D., MPA
Carlos E. Rodriguez-Diaz, PhD, MPHE, MCHES
Carlos is an academic activist. He is a queer gay man native of Puerto Rico and an experienced bilingual researcher and public health practitioner with a background in health education and community health. He conducts community-engaged research for health equity for socially vulnerable populations. He has developed interventions for LGBTQ adolescents and young adults’ sexual health and HIV prevention.
Panel 4: Adolescent Access to Reproductive Health Care post-Dobbs
Moderator: Jamie Abrams, J.D.
Speakers:
Naomi Cahn, J.D.
Naomi Cahn is the Anthony M. Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Law and co-director of the Family Law Center at the University of Virginia School of Law. Cahn is a co-author of numerous articles and books, including (most recently) Hot Flash: How the Law Ignores Menopause and What We Can Do About It (2024 with Professors Bridget Crawford and Emily Gold Waldman) and the Fair Shake: Women and the Fight for a Just Economy (2024 with Professors June Carbone and Nancy Levit). Cahn teaches reproductive justice, family law, poverty law, and trusts and estates. Cahn was an Adviser to the ALI’s Restatement of the Law: Children and the Law (2024). In 2017, Cahn received the Harry Krause Lifetime Achievement in Family Law Award from the University of Illinois College of Law, and in 2024, she was inducted into the Clayton Alumni Hall of Fame. She has worked with the Uniform Law Commission as a reporter for two drafting committees. Cahn is a member of the American Law Institute, an elected fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and the former editor of the ACTEC Law Journal. She currently serves as an officer of the AALS Trusts and Estates section and is on the steering committee of other sections. From 2002-04, Cahn researched gender-based violence while on leave and living in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Cahn has also taught at GW Law and in the Georgetown Law School clinical program and practiced with Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., and with Community Legal Services in Philadelphia.
Shanta Trivedi, J.D.
Shanta Trivedi is an Assistant Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She teaches courses on family law and child welfare/family policing. Prior to joining academia, Trivedi was a staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services’ Family Defense Practice, representing parents embroiled in the child welfare system. Through this work, she tackled the myriad challenges facing low-income, minority and otherwise disadvantaged families and developed her scholarly interests. Trivedi’s legal scholarship, writing in popular media and policy advocacy focuses on drawing attention to the ways that family policing and other legal systems harm families and promoting policies to reduce these harms.
Jamille Fields Allsbrook, J.D.
Professor Fields Allsbrook joined the SLU Law faculty in Fall 2023 after a decades long career in Washington, D.C., with experiences in both the federal government and various nonprofit organizations focused on reproductive health, rights, and justice, and health care reform and finance. Recently, she served as the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. OPA administers around $400 million dollars in grants annually, including through the Title X family planning program. She was also the Director of Women’s Health and Rights at the Center for American Progress, where she managed policy development, advised lawmakers, and conducted research and analysis. She has also held positions at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the National Health Law Program, where she was an If/When/How Reproductive Justice Fellow. Professor Fields has been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, and she completed a clinical teaching fellowship at the Harvard Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation.
Julie Maslowsky, Ph.D
Dr. Julie Maslowsky is a developmental psychologist and population health scientist who studies adolescent health, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health including contraception and abortion. Dr. Maslowsky’s research integrates adolescent developmental science with population and reproductive health to inform developmentally appropriate policies and practices on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. She is lead author of the recent report: Adolescence Post-Dobbs: A Policy-Driven Research Agenda for Minor Adolescents and Abortion.
Joanna Grossman, J.D.
Joanna L. Grossman is the Ellen K. Solender Endowed Chair in Women and Law and Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law. She currently serves as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. Her research focuses on gender equality, including reproductive rights, and she is active in reproductive justice advocacy in Texas. She is the author or editor of nine books, including Nine to Five: How Gender, Sex, and Sexuality Continue to Define the American Workplace (2016) and The Walled Garden: Law and Privacy in Modern Society (2022).