Biography
Professor Mary Crossley is a John E. Murray Faculty Scholar and Director of the Health Law Program at Pitt Law. Widely recognized for her scholarship in disability and health law, Professor Crossley has written broadly on issues of inequality in health care financing and delivery and has published articles in numerous law journals, including Columbia Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics, and Michigan Journal of Race and Law. She is also the author of the 2022 book Embodied Injustice: Race, Disability, and Health. Crossley's scholarly interests are reflected in a seminar that she has developed on Health Justice, and she has also taught courses in Health Law and Policy, Bioethics & Law, Health Care Compliance, Family Law, and Torts. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an appointed member of the Pennsylvania State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She also serves as a member of the board for AccessLex Institute and for the American Occupational Therapy Association.
Crossley was appointed Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2005 and served as Dean from 2005-2012, focusing her leadership on initiatives relating to curricular reform, innovation programming, and promoting diversity. In 2013 she was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Public Health Law Scholar in Residence, and in 2014-15 she served as a Faculty Mentor for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Public Health Law Education Faculty Fellowship Program.
Immediately prior to coming to Pitt Law in 2005, Crossley was the Florida Bar Health Law Section Professor of Law at Florida State University and before that she was on the faculty at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, including two years of service as Associate Academic Dean. Before beginning to teach, she practiced corporate and health care law in San Francisco and New Haven and clerked for Judge Harry Wellford on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Key/Recent Publications
Book:
- Embodied Injustice: Race, Disability, and Health (Cambridge Univ. Press 2022).
Book Chapters:
- “Embodiment’s Contributions to Appreciating Life with Disability and to Advancing Justice,” in Dis/ability in Media, Law, and History: Intersectional, Embodied AND Socially Constructed? (Routledge 2022)
- “Parental Autonomy, Children with Disabilities, and Horizontal Identities,” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Disability (David T. Wasserman and Adam Cureton, eds.)(2018).
- “The Role of Courts in Health Policy and Policymaking,” in Health Policymaking in the United States (Beaufort Longest ed. 6th ed. 2015).
- In re T.A.C.P. and In the Matter of Baby K: Anencephaly and Slippery Slopes, in Health Law and Bioethics: Cases in Context (2009).
Articles:
- “Prisons, Nursing Homes, and Medicaid: A COVID-19 Case Study in Health Injustice,” 30 Annals Health L. & Life Sci. 101 (2021).
- “Reproducing Dignity: Race, Disability, and Reproductive Controls,” 54 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 195(2020).
- “Opioids and Converging Interests,” 49 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1019 (2019).
- “Threats to Medicaid and Health Equity Intersections,” 12 St. Louis U. J. Health L. & Pol’y 311 (2019).
- “Bundling Justice: Medicaid’s Support for Housing,” 46 J. Law, Med. & Ethics 595 (2018).
- “Community Integration of People with Disabilities: Can Olmstead Protect against Retrenchment?,” 6 Laws 22 (2017), http://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/6/4/22.
- “Black Health Matters: Disparities, Community Health, and Interest Convergence,” 22 Mich J. Race & Law 53 (2017).
- “Ending-Life Medical Decisions: Some Disability Perspectives,” 33 Georgia State U. L. Rev. 893 (2017).
- “Health and Taxes: Hospitals, Community Health, and the IRS,” 16 Yale J. Health Pol’y, L. & Ethics 51 (2016).
- “Disability Cultural Competence in the Medical Profession,” 9 St. Louis U. J. Health L. & Pol’y 89 (2016).
- “Normalizing Disability in Families: A Response to Ouellette,” 43 J. Law, Med. & Ethics 224 (2015).
- Giving Meaning to "Meaningful Access" in Medicaid Managed Care, 102 Ky. L. J. 255 (2013-14).
- Tax-Exempt Hospitals, Community Health Needs and Addressing Disparities, 55 Howard Law Journal 687 (2012).
- Learning by Doing: an Experience with Outcomes Assessment (with Lu-in Wang), 41 Univ. Toledo L. Rev. 269 (2010) (essay for the University of Toledo Law Review’s Leadership in Legal Education Symposium series).
- Rescuing Baby Doe, 25 Georgia State University Law Review 1043 (2009) (symposium essay).
- Non-Profit Hospitals, Tax Exemption and Access for the Uninsured, 2 Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental & Public Health Law (Spring 2008).
- Dimensions of Equality in Regulating Assisted Reproductive Technologies, 9 Journal of Gender Race & Justice 273 (2005).
- Discrimination Against the Unhealthy in Health Insurance, 54 Kansas Law Review 73 (2005).
- Reasonable Accommodation as Part and Parcel of the Antidiscrimination Project, 35 Rutgers L. J. 861 (2004).
- Mary A. Crossley & Lois Shepherd, Genes and Disability: Questions at the Crossroads, 30 Florida State University Law Review XI (2003) (Symposium Introduction).
- Infected Judgment: Legal Responses to Physician Bias, 48 Villanova Law Review 195 (2003).
- Becoming Visible, The ADA's Impact on Healthcare for Persons with Disabilities, 52 Alabama L. Rev. 51 (2001)
Presentations:
- "Community Health Needs Assessments: Aligning Hospital Investments and Public Health Outcomes," webinar sponsored by The CDC Public Health Law Program & The Network for Public Health Law (March 2014).
- "Giving Meaning to 'Meaningful Access' in Medicaid Managed Care,"at AALS Annual Meeting, Disability Law Section, Washington, D.C. (Jan. 2013).
- "What's Law Got To Do With It? Law's Role in Addressing Health Inequality," Health Equity Speaker Series, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (Nov. 2012).
- “Tax-exempt Hospitals and Community Health Needs,” Wiley Branton Symposium entitled Health Care Reform and Vulnerable Populations, sponsored by Howard Law Journal, Washington, D.C., (Nov. 2011).
- “Disability Cultural Competence in the Professions,” presentation at Carlow University as part of Disability Awareness Month programing, Pittsburgh, (Oct. 2011).