Halabi Named Chair of Health Management and Policy, and Jacobs Professor

(July 9, 2025) — Sam Halabi, MPhil, JD, has been named the chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy at the School of Health and holder of the Bette Jacobs Endowed Professorship.

Halabi is a scholar of national and global health law with a specialization in health services and pharmaceutical and agrifood business organizations. He serves as the director of the Center for Transformational Health Law at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, where he leads projects with the Global Health Security Agenda, the World Health Organization and CEPI, among others. Halabi served as the 2018 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, and he is a member of the World Health Organization’s Working Group on Regulatory Approaches to AI and Health, where he co-chairs its training workstream.

“While Professor Halabi’s work is advancing the mission of the department, his research and thought leadership are also amplifying the brand of the School of Health,” said Christopher J. King, PhD, School of Health dean. “As part of his professorship role, Professor Halabi will mentor early career faculty and deepen his scholarship at the intersection of health services delivery, law and global public health.”

Halabi’s work is published in JAMA, the Lancet, The New York Times and The New England Journal of Medicine, and his research on the law of companies and corporations has been cited by both state and federal courts in the United States.

“It is a tremendous honor to be named chair of a department that features such wonderful colleagues doing high-impact work and guiding students with innovative and cutting-edge pedagogy,” said Halabi, who became chair on July 1, succeeding John Kraemer, JD, who served as the department’s chair for three years. “It is even more humbling to be named the Jacobs Chair, the namesake of which has been a hero of mine for over a decade and who has blazed so many trails advancing the rights of vulnerable populations and serving as a crucial voice for indigenous peoples.”

The Bette Jacobs Endowed Professorship is named for a former dean for the Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies (now the School of Health and School of Nursing). Jacobs remains on faculty at the School of Health as a professor of health systems administration. The professorship was previously held by Carole Roan Gresenz, PhD, who has been appointed the next dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy, beginning August 1.