Dr. Taleed El-Sabawi is an Assistant Professor of Law at Florida International University College of Law and an affiliated Research Scholar with the Addiction & Public Policy Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law at Georgetown Law Center.
Dr. El-Sabawi an interdisciplinary scholar, with a JD and a PhD in Public Health, Health Services Management and Policy with a doctoral cognate in Political Science. She specializes in the use of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze texts, including congressional hearing testimony, regulations, legislation, news media, political speeches and interview transcripts.
Her area of expertise is in addiction (harm reduction) and mental health policy, politics and law. Dr. El-Sabawi has studied and written extensively on narrative discourse surrounding opioid overdose deaths; federal administrative regulation of potentially habit-forming substances; and health insurance parity. Recently, Dr. El-Sabawi co-authored a model law that creates non-police behavioral health crisis response teams and has contributed to model laws commissioned by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Dr. El-Sabawi has provided technical assistance to federal, state and local policymakers on the adoption of evidence-based policy to address behavioral health issues. She is a member of the advisory circle of the North Carolina Urban Survivors Union, a chapter of the Urban Survivors Union, on the Board of Directors for Next Distro and frequently works alongside harm reduction activists and persons who use drugs advocating for policy reform.