Professor Ruqaiijah A. Yearby joins Case Western Reserve University School of Law as Professor of Law and Associate Director of the Law-Medicine Center. In 2000, Professor Yearby earned her Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was on the Dean's List. While at Georgetown, she contributed to The State of Health Privacy: An Uneven Terrain (607 PRACTISING L. INST. 621), which was cited in the Preamble of the final privacy regulations for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

After law school, she worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as an Assistant Regional Counsel and served as a law clerk for the Honorable Ann Claire Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Prior to joining Case, Professor Yearby was a Visiting Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, an Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo Law School and the School of Public Health and Health Professionals, and an Assistant Professor at Loyola Chicago School of Law and Stritch School of Medicine. At Buffalo, she also served as the Director of the J.D./M.P.H. program, Director of the J.D./Pharm.D. program, and Co-Director of the Health Law Concentration.

A nationally and internationally recognized scholar and presenter, Professor Yearby’s scholarship focuses on two emerging fields of health law: 1) law, justice and medical research and 2) racial disparities in elder care. Using empirical data, her research explores the ways in which laws enacted to grant equal access to quality health care through traditional means, while ostensibly aimed at protecting the disenfranchised, pose significant barriers to the victims of discrimination and exploitation by limiting their right to pursue legal claims to rectify egregious harms.

In her eight years in legal academia, she has published nine law review articles in both premier health law journals, as well as mainstream law reviews to reach a wide range of audiences. Additionally, she has written two book chapters, one editorial, and submitted written legislative testimony. Bridging the gap between numerous disciplines, her work has been cited in numerous legal and medical journals and books, including THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF BIOETHICS (2007), BARRY FURROW, ET AL, HEALTH LAW: CASES, MATERIALS AND PROBLEMS (6th ed. 2008), Jack Price and Will Rosellini, Neuroprosthetics and Medicare Reimbursement, 5 Journal of International Biotechnology Law 158–163 (2008), and MICHELE GOODWIN, BLACK MARKETS: THE SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF BODY PARTS (2006). Additionally, her work was cited in the written testimony of Professor Vernellia Randall before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law (Dec. 16, 2009).