Lara Cartwright-Smith, J.D., M.P.H.

Lara Cartwright-Smith is Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.

An interest in applied ethics, particularly bioethics and social justice, first drew Professor Cartwright-Smith to law school, and now drives her health policy work at SPHHS. She is research faculty for “Removing Legal Barriers to Health Systems Change,” a project of Aligning Forces for Quality, a national program of the Robert Wood Foundation, where she focuses on equity, health care quality, and health system change. As co-author of a chartbook on racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care, Professor Cartwright-Smith helped to create a key resource for students, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners. Before joining SPHHS as a senior research assistant in 2006 (becoming a faculty member in 2008), Professor Cartwright-Smith practiced law in a small, public-interest law firm in Washington, where she specialized in environmental and civil rights litigation. She has also been a law clerk for a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice and a staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. At law school, she helped to launch the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, and served as an editor of its first volume.

Education

Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy), Bates College, 1997
Juris Doctor, Georgetown University Law School, 2000
Master of Public Health (Health Policy), School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, 2008

Research

Professor Cartwright-Smith’s work focuses on the legal barriers to health system reform, and on rewarding quality, reducing disparities, and facilitating the use of health information while protecting privacy.

Expertise

• Health Law
• Health Policy