In the context of COVID-19, the law has played a key role in seeking to ensure equitable access to testing, medicines and vaccines, but also has the potential to perpetuate abuses against already poor and marginalized populations. As existing and newly developed laws, policies and regulations are used by countries to guide COVID responses, the USC Law & Global Health Collaboration is seeking to understand and highlight the impact of the range of policy responses that governments are taking, their immediate impacts on vulnerable and marginalized populations around the world, and their broader implications for food and housing security, sexual and reproductive health and rights, access to health and social services, and health outcomes more generally.

On April 21, join the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health and the USC Law & Global Health Collaboration for a discussion with Andy Imparato, Executive Director of Disability Rights California and member of the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, who will share his work spearheading advocacy on crisis standards of care and vaccine prioritization in the last year. The event will include commentary from Rosario Galarza, Intersectionalities Officer for International Disability Alliance, who will bring a global lens with a particular focus on strengthening the inclusion of women with disabilities and underrepresented identities in these efforts in countries around the world.

The conversation will be moderated by Sofia Gruskin, USC IIGH Director.

About the speakers:

Andy Imparato began work in February of 2020 as the Executive Director of Disability Rights California (DRC) after a high impact career in Washington, DC in disability advocacy and policy. DRC is the federally funded legal services agency that serves Californians with all disabilities across the age spectrum. While in DC, Imparato served as the Disability Policy Director for Chairman Tom Harkin on the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, and as Executive Director of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities, among other roles. Since joining DRC, Imparato has worked in coalition to prioritize high-risk people with disabilities for vaccines, to improve vital programs and services for people with disabilities and older adults, and to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability and age in the context of crisis standards of care and healthcare rationing during the pandemic. In February, President Biden appointed Imparato to the Biden Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, which is developing recommendations for the White House COVID-19 response team. Imparato grew up in Los Angeles and is a graduate of Stanford Law School. His perspective is informed by his lived experience with bipolar disorder.

Rosario Galarza joined IDA as the Intersectionalities Officer for the Capacity Building Unit. She is responsible for strengthening the inclusion of women with disabilities and underrepresented identities in IDA's work. Prior to joining IDA, Rosario worked as Human Rights Officer at the RIADIS where she supported OPDs in the implementation and monitoring of the CRPD, CEDAW and the agenda 2030, prioritizing activities related to the rights of women with disabilities and underrepresented groups. From 2013 to 2016, Rosario was appointed as Chair of Gender and Equality in the Latin American Union of the Blind (ULAC). As a Chair of Gender and Equality, she promoted the realization of different blind women’s meetings in different countries of Latin America to spread the rights recognized in CEDAW and CRPD. Rosario is based in Peru.

This event is hosted by the USC Law & Global Health Collaboration and the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health.

Contact the host of COVID-19, Disability, and the Law: Addressing Health Equity