The 2025 Constitution Day Program: Healthcare in the U.S. Constitution

In observation of Constitution Day, Dole Institute associate director Dr. Barbara Ballard, and attorney and Student Advisory Board alum Jesse Burbank will be in conversation with I. Glenn Cohen, the James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, about the intersection of healthcare policy and the U.S. Constitution, including discussions on Medicare and Medicaid, Obamacare, abortion, gender-related medical treatment, and the future of healthcare.

The Dole Institute’s Constitution Day Program is made possible by the support of longtime Friend of the Dole Institute, Mark P. Johnson.

Dr. Barbara Ballard is senior associate director at the Dole Institute, where she leads civic engagement and leadership programs. She has served at the University of Kansas since 1980 and teaches in education and gender studies. A Kansas House Representative since 1992, she is the Democratic Caucus Chair and serves on key committees. She is also a former president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

Jesse Burbank earned his bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in history and political science from the University of Kansas in 2017. He was a member of the Dole Institute Student Advisory Board, and he served as Dole Institute Director Bill Lacy’s research assistant during his senior year. Jesse earned his law degree with honors from Harvard Law School in 2020, where he was an editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. While in law school, he served as a summer legal intern in the United States Supreme Court Office of Legal Counsel. He worked in private practice after law school at the law firm Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago before joining the U.S. Army JAG Corps in late 2022. He is now a Captain in the U.S. Army and serves as a Special Victims’ Counsel at Fort Riley, representing survivors of sexual assault and related offenses throughout the military justice process.

Prof. I. Glenn Cohen is the Deputy Dean and James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and serves as the Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the intersection of bioethics and the law, as well as health law. He also teaches civil procedure. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has spoken to NATO on biotechnology and human enhancement, addressed the OECD and members of the US and the Korean Congress on medical AI policy, and advised then- U.S. Vice President Harris on reproductive rights. He has provided bioethical advising and consulting to some of the largest healthcare companies in the world including Bayer, Otsuka, and Illumina. He has given grand rounds and lectured to medical and industry conferences across the world. His work has been frequently covered by or appeared in media venues such as PBS, NPR, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Boston Globe. He is the author of more than 300 articles and leading law, medicine, and science journals and the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than 20 books. Prof. Cohen’s current projects relate to medical AI, mobile health and other health information technologies, abortion, reproduction/reproductive technology, the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs, research ethics, organ transplantation, rationing in law and medicine, health policy, FDA law, translational medicine, medical tourism and many other topics.

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Inspired by the leadership legacies of Senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole, and the enduring civic contributions of the Greatest Generation, the Dole Institute of Politics strives to promote a new era of leadership that uses politics to bring people together through opportunities that emphasize bipartisan cooperation, public service, and civic education and engagement.