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Vernellia Randall |
Randall’s presentation will be Monday from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 8707-8708 at The Lied Transplant Center. Free lunch will be available for the first 50 attendees.
Her address will be titled, “Discrimination Not Disparities: Using Civil Rights Law to Improve the Health of Minorities.” After her special visit to UNMC, Randall will go to Kearney, Neb., where she will be a keynote speaker at the 2006 Nebraska Minority Health Conference, which will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday.
A professor at the Dayton University School of Law since 1990, Randall writes and speaks nationally and internationally on race and racism, health care, gender and academic support. She has received the Ohio Commission on Minority Health Chairman’s Award and she was named one of the “Top 10 Most Influential African-Americans” on the 2001 Black Equal Opportunity Employment Journal list.
Randall hasn’t always been associated with the study or practice of law.
“I grew up during Jim Crow in the South,” she said. “If you were a black woman going to college, you either became a nurse or a teacher.”
She chose nursing. She did like the profession, though, and had worked in nursing homes while in high school. As a nurse, Randall provided public health nursing services and served as an administrator for a statewide health program in Alaska.
Involved in public health work for more than 15 years, Randall focused on eliminating disparities in health care for minorities and the poor. She believed a thorough knowledge of the law would help her become more effective in her mission, so she enrolled in law school.
After her 1987 graduation from Lewis and Clark College Law School in Portland, Ore., she became an associate with a law firm there that specialized in health care law and issues relating to health and disability insurance coverage. She also served as an adjunct faculty member at Lewis and Clark College.
Randall soon turned to teaching full time, because she wanted to make a “greater intellectual impact.”
“I’ve never regretted the decision,” she said. “I love the ‘aha!’ moments that students get.”
As director of the Academic Excellence Program, Randall helps nontraditional students get a head start on the skills necessary to succeed in law school. She said the program can benefit racial minorities, students with disabilities, students who are at an economic and educational disadvantage and nontraditional students, such as older students or music majors.
“Failing is not about intellect in law school,” she said. “It’s about learning styles, study behaviors and access to appropriate exam preparation information. Our academic support program gives access to nontraditional students who don’t often receive the right information early on.”
Since coming to Dayton’s School of Law, Randall has also served as a consultant to the Clinton administration advisory committee on health care reform and as a grant reviewer for the National Institute of Health. She also was an expert witness in the State of Missouri v. Philip Morris trial.
Before earning her law degree, Randall received her bachelor’s of science degree in nursing from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1971 and her master’s degree in nursing from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1978. She has been recognized in Who’s Who in the World since 1995 and Who’s Who in the United States since 1998.
For more information about Randall’s presentation at UNMC, contact Diane Ullrich at 559-4437.