Christie Hager

Degrees: A.B., Smith College
M.P.H., Boston University School of Public Health
J.D., University of Connecticut School of Law

Courses: Ethical Issues in Medicine and Public Health Communication (MET CM 754)

Christie Hager has returned to faculty of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, after having served as Chief Health Counsel in the Office of the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives during the development and enactment of the Commonwealth’s landmark health reform law.  Previously, she served as Deputy Director of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health. She was Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum from 1999-2003 at the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University’s Heller Graduate School, where she was appointed as the first Senior Fellow. Chris has served as Chair of the American Public Health Association’s Health Law Forum, and on the APHA Governing Council. She is also a Past President of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. From 2004-2006 she was Co-Chair of the Health Law Section of the Boston Bar Association, and  is now Chair of its Ad Hoc Committee on Health Reform. She recently served as Staff Vice-Chair of the Health Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures. She has held research positions on the staff of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Joint Committee on Health Care and at the New England Journal of Medicine.

Chris is appointed to the faculty in Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health, at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and at Suffolk University Law School, where she teaches courses on health law and state health policy. She has also held faculty positions at the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences, and The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University.  Her work has appeared in such publications as the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Law and Medicine.

Chris holds an A.B. from Smith College, a M.P.H. from the Boston University School of Public Health, and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law. She is admitted to the practice of law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Ongoing Research Topics:

• State regulation of public health and health care
• Access to health coverage
• Legislation as a tool for policy change

Additional Resources:

Hager CL. The Massachusetts Health Care Plan. In: Furrow BR, Greaney TL, Johnson SH, Jost TS, Schwartz RL. Health law: Cases, materials and problems. 6th ed. St. Paul, MN: Thomson/West, 2008:583-5.

Hager, CL. Massachusetts Health Reform: A Model of Shared Responsibility. The Journal of Legal Medicine, 29(1):11-22 (2008).

Hager, CL, Tobler L. Universal Health Care: Can it Work? State Legislators Magazine, 33(10): 22-26 (December 2007).

Hager, CL. The Ethical Health Lawyer in the Legislature. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 35(4): 744-747 (Winter 2007).

Hager, CL. Massachusetts Health Reform: A Social Compact and a Bold Experiment. The University of Kansas Law Review, 55(5): 1313-29 (June 2007).

Hager CL. Health Reform in Massachusetts. The Legislative Lawyer, National Conference of State Legislatures Legal Services Staff Section, Volume XX, Issue 2, July 2006 (Denver, CO).

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