October 2008 Newsletter

Julia Elam, '07, selected as Stokes Fellow

Julia Elizabeth (Mitchell) Elam, ’07, has been selected as a Louis Stokes Urban Health Policy Fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation for the 2008-09 term.

As a Stokes Fellow, Elam will spend a year working at the Congressional Black Caucus offices in Washington, D.C., assigned to the CBC’s House Committee on Energy and Commerce. She will conduct research and analysis, draft legislation, and coordinate logistics and public testimony for Congressional hearings.

Elam, who holds a Master’s degree in public health from Yale University in addition to her Vanderbilt law degree, plans to work on legislation involving health disparities and corporate responsibility to minority communities during her year as a Stokes Fellow. The Louis Stokes Urban Health Policy Fellowship program is sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy research and education institute to help improve the socioeconomic circumstances of African Americans and other underserved communities.

Elam earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University and then worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights as a public health analyst prior to attending law school. “During law school, I was inspired by Professor (Robert) Belton’s courses, especially his course on Race and the Law,” she says. “My career goal is to draft legislation that addresses health disparities using civil rights approaches.”

Elam spent 2007-08 as a clerk in the Office of General Counsel with the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.