Professor Susan L. Brooks, acting director of the Andy and Gwen Stern Community Lawyering Clinic, has been appointed to serve a three-year term as one of two social scientists on the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). In this role, Brooks will help shape national policy on maternal and child health issues and will offer input to determine grant funding for key research.

“Professor Brooks has incredible talent in this space, and I anticipate that she will make valuable contributions to the important work of the Council,” says Amy L. Landers, associate dean for faculty research and professor of law. “Susan’s knowledge and ability to engage with complex problems is unparalleled. I am glad she can contribute her expertise to their work.”

Brooks was selected by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) based on her longstanding commitment to supporting vulnerable children and families through legal advocacy, community-based teaching, and scholarship informed by her prior career in social work.

“I feel very honored and humbled to be nominated for this appointment,” says Brooks. “I appreciate the opportunity to contribute and help shape future research and advance policies that will be more responsive to individuals and communities that have been historically underserved in our healthcare system.”

Since 2007, Brooks has promoted an integrative “relational” and “wholehearted” approach to law and legal practice both in the classroom, and through the Stern Community Lawyering Clinic, one of only six similar law clinics in the country. “We guide students to view their clients and client communities holistically, rather than solely through a legal lens,” says Brooks. Students work with, and on behalf of, clients in need of legal services and provide other forms of advocacy in Drexel’s neighboring communities.