Newsworthy by Faculty Member

The state of Texas recently implemented policy changes in women's reproductive health in the form of the Heartbeat Act (SB8) and restrictions on medication-induced abortion (SB4). On Jan. 20, 2022, the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Dell Medical School convened a virtual panel discussion to discuss the impacts of these policy changes from the perspective of frontline reproductive health care professionals in Texas. Specifically, the panelists provided an overview of the new policies, assessed which communities are most impacted, and described how doctors and health care providers are adapting.

A comprehensive statewide approach would better protect Californians from the Golden State’s deadliest climate change side effect: extreme heat. That's according to Adapting to Extreme Heat in California: Assessing Gaps in State-level Policies & Funding Opportunities, a new study by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.

One week after his inauguration, President Joe Biden ordered federal agencies to direct 40% of the government's investments in climate and clean infrastructure to benefit people in disadvantaged communities. According to his executive order, the Justice40 Initiative is intended to "address the disproportionate health, environmental, economic and climate impacts on disadvantaged communities."

In July, The University of Texas at Austin named JR DeShazo the 12th dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, a school producing graduates who are both skilled policy analysts and talented leaders of public and nonprofit organizations. DeShazo comes to the Forty Acres from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he has led both the Department of Public Policy and the Luskin Center for Innovation as its founding director for more than a decade.