Karen A. Shaw

Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Accreditation; Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing

Dr. Karen Alicia Shaw oversees and facilitates a broad range of projects regarding the law school’s academic and administrative goals, initiatives, and policies, as well as aspects of the school’s graduate law and Rule of Law for Development (PROLAW) programs. She also manages all law school accreditation matters regarding the American Bar Association and other external bodies. In addition, Dr. Shaw teaches in the following areas: health law, health literacy and law, legal writing (health law focused), international development law and policy research, and socio-legal studies. More so, she currently serves as a subject matter expert for health literacy standard-setting in organizational systems and policies with the Health Literacy Solutions Center at the Institute for Health Care Advancement.

Dr. Shaw has over 20 years of experience in educational leadership, teaching, and academic program administration. Prior to Loyola, she briefly worked in various health law and other legal practice settings before transitioning her career to academia teaching courses in health insurance policy, medical law and ethics, and English at the vocational training and business college levels where she had the privilege of instructing and mentoring many first-generation and nontraditional students. During this time, she also served as a program dean at a career college where she developed health care curricula and implemented the college’s academic assessment initiatives.

Dr. Shaw holds a Doctor of Juridical Science degree in Health Law and Policy from Loyola, where her dissertation employed a systemic content analysis of Medicaid class actions through the lens of cooperative federalism and institutional reform litigation to devise a framework for defining “reasonably prompt” health care services for children. She also holds a Master of Laws degree in Health Law from Loyola; a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pittsburgh, where she served as an associate editor for the Journal of Law and Commerce; and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies with minors in Professional Writing and Business Administration from DePaul University.

Education

BA, DePaul University
JD, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
LLM, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
SJD, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Courses Taught

Legal Writing I and II (Health Law Section)
Interprofessional Writing & Communication for Health Literacy and Health Care Equity
Legal Research and Writing I and II for International Lawyers
Research and Writing on the Rule of Law, Rule of Law for Development Program
Child and Family Law Seminar