Daniel Dawes

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT DANIEL DAWES

Daniel E. Dawes, J.D, DHL (Hon.), is a widely respected healthcare and public health leader, health policy expert, lawyer, author, educator, and researcher who serves as Senior Vice President of Global Health at Meharry Medical College and Founding Dean of the School of Global Health. He previously served as Vice President and Executive Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine. A trailblazer and nationally respected voice in the health equity movement, his scholarship and leadership, particularly the innovative political determinants of health framework that he pioneered, have resulted in increased policies and laws prioritizing population health. His groundbreaking works, 150 Years of ObamaCare, which document the health equity movement in America and elevates the health equity-focused provisions of the Affordable Care Act that he led in negotiations and formulation, and The Political Determinants of Health, which provides an in-depth lens on the root causes of inequities, both published by Johns Hopkins University Press are now nationally and internationally recognized and used as top health policy books. He was instrumental in building collaboratives, including the HHS grant-funded National COVID-19 Resiliency Network and the Health Equity Leadership & Exchange Network and led the development of nation’s first Health Equity Tracker.Professor Dawes is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. He served as an advisor to The White House COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force and was appointed to the CDC’s Advisory Committee to the Director and the NIH’s National Advisory Council for Nursing Research. He is a member of the board of trustees of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, University of Nebraska Foundation, and Loma Linda University Health.In addition, he served on the National Football League/National Football League Players Association – National Committee on the Disparities of COVID-19, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health National Advisory Council, and the Children’s Mental Health Network National Advisory Council.For his achievements, Dean Dawes was elected a Presidential Visiting Fellow of Yale University in 2024, named one of the 46 most influential leaders in life science and medicine by STAT in 2023, awarded the American College of Preventive Medicine 2022 Dr. Daniel S. Blumenthal Exemplary Leadership in Health Award, the National Medical Association Louis Stokes Health Advocacy Award, among other honors.