Family Gift Supports Georgetown’s Health Justice Alliance Over the Next Decade

A medical student checks a blood pressure reading
The Health Justice Alliance trains future physicians, lawyers and nurses to collaboratively use the law as a tool to improve health and well-being at the patient, systems, and population levels.

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(December 19, 2023) — A family foundation has gifted $1.5 million to Georgetown University to sustain the efforts of the Health Justice Alliance (HJA), Georgetown’s medical-legal partnership that is training future lawyers, physicians and nurses to collaboratively use the law as a tool to improve health and well-being at the patient, systems, and population levels. The foundation asked to remain anonymous.

The HJA is a collaboration between Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown Law, in partnership with Georgetown’s academic health system partner, MedStar Health. As students work with law and medical faculty, providers, and staff to assist patients who struggle with unmet legal needs related to housing, food, insurance, employment, education, and other issues that negatively impact their health and well-being, they learn how more holistic patient care can advance health justice and racial equity in the District and beyond.

HJA’s activities focus on three core areas: service to the community, interdisciplinary collaboration and education, and program- and policy-informing research and dissemination of best practices.

The foundation gift will create an endowed HJA fund to be a sustainable source of unrestricted support over the next 10 years to address needs as they arise. The foundation members hope the gift will inspire others to contribute.

HJA Faculty Director Vicki Girard is grateful for the foundation’s gift, which will have a far-reaching impact.

“This generous support will help ensure we can continue HJA’s work and will allow us to build upon our efforts to train leaders who drive positive change and improve the well-being of communities everywhere,” says Girard. “We are deeply indebted to this generous donation and the foundation’s confidence in that vision.” The HJA’s work reflects Georgetown’s core and distinct commitments to human dignity, education, and justice. These activities draw on strengths in interdisciplinary collaboration and experiential learning — along with the benefits of location in the nation’s capital — to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to lead across health, policy, law and other areas.