Andy Baker-White, JD, MPH

Andy Baker-White brings over 20 years of legal and public health experience to ASTHO. He currently serves as senior director of state health policy. In this role, Baker-White supports state and territorial health agencies in advancing sound public health policy by overseeing the tracking, analysis, and dissemination of legislative and regulatory trends, responding to requests for legal technical assistance, conducting legal research and analysis, and collaborating with ASTHO’s programmatic teams and partners. He also works to build state and territorial health agency capacity to develop, promote, and implement sound public health legal and policy interventions by overseeing and convening peer networks for state and territorial health agency legal counsel and legislative liaisons and developing public health policy resources. Additionally, Baker-White represents ASTHO and promotes state and territorial health agencies’ work through conference presentations, webinars, partner and funder calls, and in-person meetings.

Prior to joining ASTHO, Baker-White served as the associate director of the Network for Public Health Law’s Mid-States Region at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In this role, he provided legal technical assistance, as well as workshops and presentations on the use of law to improve and protect public health. Baker-White’s work at the Network allowed him to investigate and explore a wide range of topics including, public health authority, school vaccinations, the substance use prevention, and the privacy and security of health data and information.

In these positions, Baker-White contributed to the growing field of public health law and provided analysis of policy through technical assistance, writings, and presentations. He has worked closely with public health practitioners, attorneys, policymakers, and leaders, and supported them in identifying, applying, and evaluating the depths, boundaries, and impact of public health law and policy.

Before focusing on public health law and policy issues, Baker-White was a staff attorney at Legal Aid of the Bluegrass in Ashland, Kentucky, where he provided civil legal representation to victims of domestic violence, tenants in federal housing, and residents of long-term care facilities. He received his master’s degrees in Public Health from the University of Washington and his juris doctor and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Kentucky. Baker-White is a past-chair of the American Public Health Association’s Law Section.