Benjamin Mason Meier is a Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Meier’s interdisciplinary research—at the intersection global health, international law, and public policy—examines rights-based approaches to health. Working collaboratively across the University of North Carolina’s Department of Public Policy and Gillings School of Global Public Health, Dr. Meier has written over one hundred articles on the development, evolution, and application of human rights in global health.

His recent global health governance volume, Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance in a Globalizing World (OUP 2018), examines the influence of human rights across the health efforts of the United Nations. Drawing from this comparative analysis of international organizations, Dr. Meier has published an academic textbook for the field of health and human rights, Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights (OUP 2020). To advance legal scholarship on contemporary global health issues, he recently launched a quarterly column on Global Health Law in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics and a foundational text on Global Health Law & Policy: Realizing Justice for a Healthier World (OUP 2023).

As a contributor to the development of rights-based global health policy, Dr. Meier serves additionally as the Past Chair of the Global Health Law Consortium, as a Senior Scholar at Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, as the Founding Chair of the American Public Health Association’s Human Rights Forum, and as a consultant to international organizations, national governments, and nongovernmental organizations.

Dr. Meier received his B.A. in Biochemistry from Cornell University, his J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Cornell Law School, and his Ph.D. in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University.
AFFILIATIONS
Co-Chair, Advocacy & Policy Committee
2024-present
Consortium of Universities for Global Health
Chair
2022-2023
Global Health Law Consortium
Professor
2021-Present
UNC Department of Public Policy / UNC Department of Health Policy & Management (Joint Appointment)
Senior Scholar
2020-Present
Georgetown University O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law
Faculty Associate
2010-Present
UNC Center for Bioethics
Faculty Advisor
2013-Present
American Mock World Health Organization
Founding Chair
2013-2017
Human Rights Forum, American Public Health Association
Acting Chair
2019–2020
Global Health Law Consortium
Scholar
2008–2018
Georgetown University O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law
Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Policy & Management
2010–2020
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
RECOGNITIONS
Order of the Golden Fleece, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2021
Mid-Career Award in International Health, American Public Health Association
2021
Teaching Innovation Award, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2019
Finalist, Manekin Family Award for Teaching Excellence in Honors Carolina, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2019
Finalist, Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching
2018, 2019
Early Career Award for Excellence in Public Health Law, American Public Health Association
2018
Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
2017
Zachary Taylor Smith Distinguished Term Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Education
2016–2020
Carolina Chiron Award Finalist
2015
Johnston Teaching Excellence Award
2013
Best Teaching Award in Public Policy
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
William C. Friday Award for Excellence in Teaching
2011