
Departmental Affiliations
Lainie Rutkow, JD, PhD '09, MPH '05, uses research to determine how the law can protect and promote the health of populations.
Contact Info
624 N. Broadway, Hampton House 592
Baltimore
Maryland
21205
US
Research Interests
public health law; health policy; regulation; legislation; public health practice; emergency preparedness; substance use disorders; food policy; tobacco control; legal research; qualitative research
Experiences & Accomplishments
Education
PhD
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2009
MPH
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2005
JD
New York University School of Law
2004
Overview
Lainie Rutkow is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She holds joint appointments in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health, Behavior and Society and the School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine. She is Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives at Johns Hopkins and previously served as Senior Adviser to the University's President. Dr. Rutkow works at the intersection of public policy, law, and health, using legal, qualitative, and quantitative methods to determine how law influences public health outcomes. She is particularly interested in sub-national natural experiments involving public health laws, and has led seminal evaluations of U.S. states’ legal efforts to promote emergency preparedness, address opioid use disorders, and mitigate childhood obesity. She has authored over 125 peer-reviewed publications on these and related topics in journals including JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and the American Journal of Public Health. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and American Heart Association. Dr. Rutkow was the inaugural visiting scholar with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Law Program. She earned a BA in comparative literature and history of science and medicine from Yale University, and holds a JD from New York University School of Law, and an MPH and PhD, in health policy, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a member of the bar in New York.
Honors & Awards
Outstanding Achievement in Public Health, Research!America, for Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, 2021 (Full team award. Dr. Rutkow led the overall team);
Best Inventions of 2020, TIME, for Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (Full team award. Dr. Rutkow led the overall team);
Outstanding Evaluation Award, American Evaluation Association, 2018 (Full team award. Dr. Rutkow led a sub-team);
Advising, Mentoring, Teaching Recognition Award, 2011, 2012;
Delta Omega, 2005
Best Inventions of 2020, TIME, for Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (Full team award. Dr. Rutkow led the overall team);
Outstanding Evaluation Award, American Evaluation Association, 2018 (Full team award. Dr. Rutkow led a sub-team);
Advising, Mentoring, Teaching Recognition Award, 2011, 2012;
Delta Omega, 2005
Select Publications
Selected recent publications
- DeGarmo E, Rosen J, Rutkow L. Use of law by U.S. states during the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to people who are undocumented. Am J Public Health. 2022;112(12):1757-1764. [PMID: 36383931].
- Aliseda Alonso A, Bertran de Lis S, Lee A, Pond EN, Blauer B, Rutkow L, Nuzzo JB. The missing COVID-19 demographic data: a state-wide analysis of COVID-19-related demographic data from local government sources with a comparison to federal public surveillance data. Am J Public Health. 2022;112(8):1161-1169. [PMID: 35830674].
- McGinty EE, Bicket MC, Seewald NJ, Stuart EA, Alexander GC, Barry CL, McCourt AD, Rutkow L. Effects of state opioid prescribing laws on use of opioid and other pain treatments among commercially insured U.S. adults. Annals Int Med. 2022;175(5):617-627. [PMID: 35286141].
- Tormohlen KN, Bicket MC, White S, Barry CL, Stuart EA, Rutkow L, McGinty EE. The state of the evidence on the association between state cannabis laws and opioid-related outcomes: A review. Current Addiction Rep. 2021;8(4):538-545. [PMID: 35668861].
- Alexander E, Rutkow L, Gudzune KA, Cohen JE, McGinty EE. Sodium menu labeling: priorities for research and policy. Public Health Nutr. 2021;24(6):1542-1551. [PMID: 33032669].
Projects
Effect of Variations in State Emergency Preparedness Laws on the Public Health Workforce's Willingness to Respond in Emergencies
Multi-Criteria Disaster Vulnerability Assessment: Critical Infrastructure, Human Behavior, and Public Policy
Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center: Legal and Ethical Assessments Concerning Mental and Behavioral Health Preparedness
Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center: Supplement
Center for Public Health Preparedness