Health Equity Scholar Daniel E. Dawes Tackles Mental Health Disparities in Groundbreaking New Textbook
12 Aug 2025
APB exclusive speaker Daniel E. Dawes, J.D., a leading voice in health equity and policy, is set to release a pivotal new textbook, Mental Health Equity, on September 28, 2025, through Springer Publishing Company.
As the founding dean of the School of Global Health and Senior Vice President of Global Health at Meharry Medical College, as well as former executive director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, Dawes embodies a deeply experienced perspective in bridging law, policy, and social justice
Mental Health Equity is being hailed as the first comprehensive textbook to explore the complex, intertwined structural drivers of mental health inequities—institutional racism, redlining, economic, environmental, biological, social, and political determinants—and identify actionable policy and community-based strategies for change.
Dawes’s career is defined by hands-on influence in health policy: he helped shape and negotiate landmark legislation, including the Mental Health Parity Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments, and the health equity provisions of the Affordable Care Act. In addition, he cofounded the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN), spearheaded the nation’s first health equity tracker, and co-led the HHS National COVID-19 Resiliency Network.
Through his keynotes, Dawes brings decades of policy leadership and academic insight to discuss the growing movement for health justice, adding urgency to the fight for equitable mental health for all Americans. He challenges audiences to view mental health through a holistic and equitable lens, and provides a roadmap to transform awareness into meaningful change.