Peter Jacobson is professor emeritus of health law and policy and the director of the Center for Law, Ethics, and Health at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he taught courses on health law, public health law, and health policy.
Jacobson’s recent research projects included leading a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project examining the implementation of health in all policies programs, and a de Beaumont Foundation project assessing the legal issues that contributed to the Flint water crisis. He is the principal investigator for the Mid-States Region of the Network for Public Health Law and served as chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Health in Michigan.
Jacobson’s previous research examined health departments’ strategic adaptations, public health entrepreneurship, and the integration of health care and population health. In 2002, Jacobson published Strangers in the Night: Law and Medicine in the Managed Care Era, and co-authored False Hope: Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer in 2007 (both from Oxford University Press). Jacobson co-authored Law and the Health System (Foundation Press, 2014).
From 2010 to 2016, Jacobson was the associate editor for health law and public health at the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. In 2016, Jacobson received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Public Health Law from the Health Law Section of the American Public Health Association. In 2017, he received the Distinguished Health Law Professor Award from the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics.
Jacobson holds a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, an MPH from UCLA, and a B.A. in history from Dickinson College.