Daniel Dawes to Receive Families USA Health Equity Advocate of the Year Award

Washington, D.C. – Families USA announced today that Daniel Dawes, executive director of government affairs and health policy at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, and author of “150 Years of Obamacare,” will receive this year’s Health Equity Advocate Award in honor of his exceptional advocacy and commitment to eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities and achieving health equity for all.

“Daniel has been on the front lines of every important health care battle of our time, and he has been tireless in his fight to ensure that vulnerable and marginalized populations get the quality health care they deserve,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. “He’s truly an inspiration for all of us who believe health care is a right, not a privilege.”

The award will be presented Friday, Feb. 17, at an awards luncheon on the second day of Families USA’s 22nd Annual Health Action Conference.

Besides his work at Morehouse, Dawes is a lecturer on health law and policy at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute. He is also the co-founder and Principal Investigator of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN), which is a national network of health equity champions in virtually every state and territory.

He was also an instrumental leader in shaping the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Senate, where he founded and chaired the National Working Group on Health Disparities and Health Reform, which worked to ensure that the Affordable Care Act included measures to address the disparities in health care and health status among racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, women, children, LGBTQ individuals, and other vulnerable groups in the United States. In 2016 he published “150 Years of Obamacare,” which provides a behind-the-scenes look at how the decades-long health equity, mental health, and health reform movements coalesced to produce the Affordable Care Act.

Mr. Dawes also serves on several boards, commissions, and councils focused on health equity and health reform. He is also the author of several publications.

Mr. Dawes holds a JD from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.