Shine Lecture: Legal Aid’s Pivotal Role in Patient Advocacy.

Matt has advocated for health care access for consumers since the early 1990’s. He joined HLA in 2005 as a Staff Attorney and has served as Executive Director since 2009. At HLA, Matt leads Massachusetts’ only non-profit, public interest law firm dedicated exclusively to health care access. During his time with HLA, Matt has worked with the organization’s outstanding staff to significantly expand HLA’s efforts to expand access to health care. HLA’s growth has included the establishment of several strategic initiatives serving children with mental illness, immigrants, consumers with unaffordable medical debt, the gender-diverse community, and people with disabilities. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Matt began his professional career as a staff member for Senator Edward M. Kennedy with the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources (now known as the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions). In Senator Kennedy’s office, he participated in advancing national health care legislation, including proposals to expand access to health insurance and strengthen public health programs. He left Senator Kennedy’s office to attend Suffolk University Law School where he graduated magna cum laude. Matt then worked in the Massachusetts State House as a legislative aide to State Representative Kay Khan, a champion for access to health care. In the State House, Matt drafted and helped enact various legislative and budgetary provisions including measures to improve mental health services and correctional health care.

George J. Annas is William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University and Director of the Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health, and a member of the Department of Health Law, Policy and Management at the School of Public Health. He is also a Professor at the School of Law and School of Medicine. He is author or editor of 20 books on health law and bioethics, including The Rights of Patients (3d ed 2004), Public Health Law (2d ed 2014), American Bioethics (2005), Worst Case Bioethics (2010), and Genomic Messages (2015). He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the co-founder of Global Lawyers & Physicians, a NGO dedicated to promoting health and human rights.