Public Health and Civil Rights Academic Leader Dr. Dayna Matthew to Deliver Graduation Address to the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s 214th Graduating MD Class

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, announced today that Dayna B. Matthew, JD, PhD, Dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, will deliver the keynote address for this year’s graduating medical student class. The UMSOM MD graduation ceremony will take place at the Hippodrome Theatre on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Doors will open at 12:30 pm, with the procession beginning at 1:30 pm, followed by the ceremony.

A leader in public health and civil rights law, Dean Matthew joined GW Law in 2020 and devotes much of her attention to health disparities, health care, and social determinants of health. Before entering academia, Dean Matthew practiced as a civil litigator both in Kentucky at the law firm of Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald, and in Virginia at McGuireWoods, where her work primarily focused on the defense of medical care providers and corporate manufacturers in state courts, federal courts, and before administrative and licensing tribunals.

“We could not have selected a more timely and relevant speaker to address our Class of 2023 than Dr. Matthew,” said Dean Gladwin, who is also the Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor. “She has dedicated her professional and academic career to removing barriers to equitable health care for low-income and historically vulnerable communities.  I know that her leadership and advocation will inspire our graduates – our future physicians and scientists – to overcome health inequities in all of its forms, from research and testing to therapeutics and patient care.”

A member of the American Law Institute, Dean Matthew actively serves on several public health boards, including the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ COVID-19 Vaccine Working Group; the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics; and the Scientific Advisory Council of the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts.

Dean Matthew also is an influential figure in the field of public policy. In 2013, she co-founded the Colorado Health Equity Project, a medical-legal partnership incubator; in 2015, she served as the Senior Adviser to the Director of the Office of Civil Rights for the US Environmental Protection Agency. She has served as a member of the health policy team for US Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. In 2015-2016, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in Residence in Washington, DC, and forged relationships with influential policy groups such as the Brookings Institution and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Dean Matthew earned an AB in Economics from Harvard-Radcliffe Institute and later obtained a JD from the University of Virginia after briefly working as a commercial real estate banker. While studying at the university, she served as an Editor of the Virginia Law Review and taught as a Hardy Dillard Writing Fellow. Following graduation, she clerked for Justice John Charles Thomas, the first African American justice to sit on the Virginia Supreme Court. From 1991 to 1994, she taught at the University of Virginia and served as co-Founder and Inaugural Director of The Equity Center, a transdisciplinary research center that seeks to build better relationships between UVA and the Charlottesville community. In 2018, she received a PhD in health and behavioral sciences from the University of Colorado at Denver.

She has written numerous articles and book chapters on health and antitrust law topics that have appeared in the Virginia Law Review, the Georgetown Journal of Law, and the American Journal of Law and Medicine, among other publications. She is the author of the 2015 bestselling book Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care and Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America, published in 2022.

UMSOM Class of 2023 Student Spotlight

Members of the Class of 2023 include remarkably accomplished and talented individuals:

• Navy SEAL– Anthony Yeager, MD ’23
• Lawyer – Brian Extein, MD ’23
• Concert violinist – Eric Lai, MD ’23
• Rock climber – Aaron D’Amore, MD ’23
• Professional Indian classical dancer – Nandini Aravindan, MD ’23
• Bollywood dancer/dance instructor – Trisha Miglani, MD ’23
• Nashville singer – Alexander Upegui, MD ’23
• College athletes:
• • Football – Ashfott Funjungo, MD ’23
  • Soccer - Matthew Chrencik, MD ’23
  • Lacrosse – Emily Hamburger, MD ’23
  • Fencing – Annie Yang, MD ’23
  • Tennis – Madison Parks, MD ’23 and Gregory Dawson, MD ’23
  • Softball – Gillian Murray, MD ’23
• Published book author – Elisabeth Fassas, MSc., MD ’23
• Amateur equestrian – Elise Bonin, MD ’23
• Ultra-Marathoner – Charlotte Healy, MS, MD ’23

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 46 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs, and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished two-time winner of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research. With an operating budget of more than $1.3 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic, and clinically based care for nearly 2 million patients each year. The School of Medicine has nearly $600 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total population of nearly 9,000 faculty and staff, including 2,500 students, trainees, residents, and fellows. The combined School of Medicine and Medical System (“University of Maryland Medicine”) has an annual budget of over $6 billion and an economic impact of nearly $20 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine, which ranks as the 8th highest among public medical schools in research productivity (according to the Association of American Medical Colleges profile) is an innovator in translational medicine, with 606 active patents and 52 start-up companies. In the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking of the Best Medical Schools, published in 2021, the UM School of Medicine is ranked #9 among the 92 public medical schools in the U.S., and in the top 15 percent (#27) of all 192 public and private U.S. medical schools. The School of Medicine works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu