Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin is the Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy. She is the Co-Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Professor Goodwin previously was a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. She was the Abraham Pinanski Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Goodwin is the 2023 recipient of the California Women’s Law Center Pursuit of Justice Award. In 2022, the American Bar Association recognized her with the Margaret Brent Award. In 2020-21, she was bestowed the Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center (the organization central to the founding of bioethics).
Research and Scholarship Distinction:
Dr. Goodwin is credited with helping to establish and shape the health law field. She is an acclaimed bioethicist, constitutional law scholar, and prolific author. She directed the first ABA accredited health law program in the nation and established the first law center focused on race and bioethics. Her scholarship appears in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Chicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, New York Law Review, and Northwestern Law Review among others. This dossier addresses legal questions related to freedom of speech; religious exercise; equal protection; due process; race and sex discrimination; reproductive rights; slavery; and LGBTQ equality. Her scholarship has been referenced by national media, legislators, and civil society organizations. She is the author/editor of six books, including the award-winning book, Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.
A sought-after public commentator, you may find Dr. Goodwin’s work in print, radio, and television news, including at The Atlantic, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Chicago Sun-Times, Vox, Politico, Salon.com, Forbes, The Washington Post, and Mother Jones and appearances on ABC News; CBS News, NBC News; MSNBC, NPR, and HBO’s Vice News among others. Outside of the classroom, Dr. Goodwin is the Executive Producer of Ms. Studios, host of the popular podcast: On The Issues With Michele Goodwin.
