The Jay Healey Teaching Session builds a community of health law teachers that help, boost, and nurture each other. This year, we are launching a broader discussion of concrete ways that we can support each other after the session concludes. This is an ongoing discussion that we invite everyone to consider over the course of the Conference and that we hope ASLME can help cultivate.
Please add your thoughts here as comments throughout the Conference. Recognizing that the support needed and offered in this community will reflect the incredible variety of its members, some specific questions to ponder:
- What kinds of support would be helpful?
- What support do you have now that others might find helpful?
- How do support needs vary? For example, what are the unique needs of:
- Pre-tenure faculty, post-docs, and teaching fellows?
- Folks working primarily and directly on now-controversial issues, such as law clinic faculty and health science researchers?
- Those studying and working in the U.S. from abroad?
- What can ASLME as an organization do?
- What avenues for public engagement would you recommend to other health law teachers?
Liz McCuskey
4 Jun 2025(4) During the Teaching Session, one table came up with the idea of maintaining an ASLME members searchable database or webpage, with names, institutions, and areas of expertise.
Courtney Thiele
5 Jun 2025Some suggestions from our table discussion during the Teaching session:
– provide resources for stress response, such as mindfulness tools
– Community connection and support through a LinkedIn HLPC group where we can connect, share (and reshare) the good work being done and encourage one another
– Help support opportunities to connect and engage outside the conference (focus on community building outside of professional development)
Nadia Sawicki
5 Jun 2025Everyone at our table emphasized how valuable the ASLME and HLP community already is – in terms of forging connections, mentoring junior faculty, and maintaining community norms that emphasize shared goals, rather than competition. Our community provides a circle of trust, inspiration, comfort, and sets a tone of respect and solidarity. Our individual actions create these community norms, so let’s continue to reinforce these principles as our membership expands.
Shavonnie Carthens
5 Jun 2025During the teaching session our table members shared that they found the teaching bank to be invaluable when prepping new courses or revising existing courses. The table also praised individual members of the HLP community for serving as mentors and guides for navigating legal academia. One person suggested that since the community has grown, it could be helpful to form HLP subgroups, such as disability, IP, FDA, etc.
Kayte Spector-Bagdady
6 Jun 2025Everyone at my table agreed that they would appreciate if ASLME would play a greater role in facilitating conversations with people facing the same concerns right now (e.g., federally funded health law scholars, people trying to teach ever-changing regulations). One of the suggestions was just to facilitate a platform where people could sign up to join a signal group or something like that (rather than list-serves).
Debbie Farringer
6 Jun 2025Similar to comments above, individuals at my table found the SLU repository and its resources to be invaluable! Generally, everyone found the ASLME and HLP community to be supportive and non-competitive as compared to other disciplines and said it was such a welcome change from other conferences and groups. Some individuals at our table stated that being able to engage in interdisciplinary work, co-authored works, and shorter articles that might have more immediate and rapid impact is challenging for many pre-tenure faculty. We wondered whether there was any role for HLP or ASLME to play in helping to educate law schools/law school deans or T&P about some of the norms of interdisciplinary work allowing for some of our pre-tenure folks to engage in this work without it being an impediment to tenure and promotion (akin to Uniform Law Commission – proposed language for T&P committees). Lastly, it was suggested that ASLME could facilitate a platform or some sort of other process for enabling collective action – for those looking to get involved and those looking for help from others. For example, if someone is writing an amicus brief and would like other professors to sign on or is seeking feedback, it would be great to have an ability to be able to connect regarding that sort of collective action work.
Asha Scielzo
9 Jun 2025At my table we discussed the “secret sauce” that makes the ASLME community so special, focusing on the collegiality and willingness to help each other. ASLME is well positioned to leverage this strength and provide more opportunities for connection and engagement. I am glad that all of this feedback will be shared with the ASLME Board of Directors so that we can see programming and other initiatives that meet the needs of our community. Thank you!