Nia Johnson is a legal scholar whose work lies at the intersection of health law, bioethics, and race and the law. Her research examines how legal and political forces shape public health infrastructure and influence the success or disruption of public health initiatives. She focuses in particular on how racial resentment informs health policy lawmaking, highlighting both the ways law can advance equitable healthcare allocation and the instances where it can undermine those goals. Her scholarship has appeared in the Michigan Journal of Race and Law, UC Law Journal, JAMA Health Forum, and the Hastings Center Report.
Johnson's contributions have been … Read more »
Nia Johnson is a legal scholar whose work lies at the intersection of health law, bioethics, and race and the law. Her research examines how legal and political forces shape public health infrastructure and influence the success or disruption of public health initiatives. She focuses in particular on how racial resentment informs health policy lawmaking, highlighting both the ways law can advance equitable healthcare allocation and the instances where it can undermine those goals. Her scholarship has appeared in the Michigan Journal of Race and Law, UC Law Journal, JAMA Health Forum, and the Hastings Center Report.
Johnson's contributions have been recognized with the Duke University Endowment's Wilhelmina M. Reuben-Cooke Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practices Fellowship (2023–2024) and the Duke Initiative for Science and Society Faculty and Staff Leadership Award (2023).
She earned her B.A. in International Studies from Oakwood University, her Master of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania, and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Law and Medicine (2018–2019). She completed her Ph.D. in Health Policy, with a concentration in Political Analysis, at Harvard University in 2023. From 2022 to 2025, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Duke University School of Law.
