Prof Kathleen. S Hoke, J.D.

Director of the Legal Resource Center for Public Health Policy

University of Maryland Carey School of Law

Biography

Kathleen is a Law School Professor, Director of the Legal Resource Center for Public Health Policy, and Director of the Network for Public Health Law-Eastern Region, at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. Through the Center and Network, Kathleen provides technical legal assistance to state and local health officials, legislators, researchers, and organizations working to use law and policy change to improve public health. With the Legal Resource Center, Kathleen supports Maryland policymakers, legislators, public health officials, and community organizations work through myriad legal issues related to tobacco control and prevention, regulation of gambling, and injury prevention. As Director of the Network’s Eastern Region, Kathleen studies different approaches to improving public health through housing law and policy, working with state and local public health officials and housing advocates on law and policy change to create affordable, healthy housing. Kathleen’s work with the Network also focuses on regulation of cannabis, scope of practice of health professionals, dyamics of the opioid epidemic, immigrants and public health, and more.

As a Professor at Maryland Carey Law for nearly two decades, Kathleen directs the Public Health Law Clinic and teaches Public Health and the Law and Legal Analysis and Writing. Kathleen’s interdisciplinary work has resulted in co-authored publications across the spectrum, including in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics; Injury Prevention; Journal of Urban Health; Journal of Health Care Law and Policy; and the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Kathleen was given the UMB President’s Award for Excellence in 2020 and in 2016 received the Jennifer Robbins Award for the Practice of Public Health Law by the American Public Health Association Law Section. In 2020, Kathleen accepted a position on the editorial board of the CDC’s publication, Preventing Chronic Disease. She serves a variety of professional organizations and has been appointed by Maryland’s Governor to the Maryland State Council on Cancer Control.

Kathleen graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1992, completed a clerkship with the Honorable Lawrence Rodowsky of the Maryland Court of Appeals and served with distinction as an Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant to the Attorney General of Maryland prior to joining the School of Law in 2002.