Movement Praxis

10 Ways to Put Equity and Justice Into Practice

Aysha Pamukcu, Jamila M. Porter Journal of Public Health Management & Practice
March 2026

10 ongoing, interrelated practices that make equity and justice real in our day-to-day work. Adapted from Advancing Equity and Justice.

Health Justice and Just Transition

Aysha Pamukcu, Angela P. Harris Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
March 2023

As the public health field pushes itself to address the "cause of causes" of unjust health disparities, Just Transition offers new possibilities for partnership and collective action.

COVID-19 Policy Playbook, Vol. II (Chapter 37)

Aysha Pamukcu, Angela P. Harris Public Health Law Watch
March 2021

50 top legal experts assess and recommend policy solutions to safeguard health, civil, and human rights.

Toward the Just Governance of Necessities

Aysha Pamukcu, Angela P. Harris Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law
October 2020

With a civil rights of health approach, we can work to cure the virus of racism which has rendered us collectively sicker and poorer. We can govern vital social goods for public benefit rather than private gain. And we can build a just infrastructure of provision by recognizing and confronting racism through anti-racist policy.

Anti-racist policy & enforcement

Aysha Pamukcu, Angela P. Harris Public Health Newswire
September 2020

The civil rights of health framework suggests two broad priorities during today's time of crisis: pursuing anti-racist policy as a public good and equitably enforcing law and policy.

Toward the Civil Rights of Health

Aysha Pamukcu, Angela P. Harris UCLA Law Review
September 2020

Civil rights law & public health practice can strengthen each other's weaknesses and, with social movements, give us a new approach to challenging structural inequality.

COVID-19 Policy Playbook (Chapter 35)

Aysha Pamukcu, Angela P. Harris Public Health Law Watch
August 2020

50 top legal experts find U.S. policy response to COVID-19 dangerously lacking, and recommend steps to safeguard health, civil and human rights.

COVID-19 & the civil rights of health

Aysha Pamukcu, Angela P. Harris Law & Political Economy Project (Yale Law School)
July 2020

It’s time to treat the social determinants of health and anti-discrimination law and policy as health interventions that can both flatten the curve for everyone and close the unjust gap between the privileged and the subordinated.

Flattening the curve & closing the gap: the civil rights of health during a global pandemic

Aysha Pamukcu, Angela P. Harris Law & Political Economy Project
June 2020

It’s time to treat good jobs, affordable and adequate housing, clean air and water, and above all, anti-discrimination law and policy as health interventions that can both flatten the curve for everyone and close unjust health disparity gaps.

Protect public health through housing

Aysha Pamukcu Partnership for the Bay's Future
April 2020

COVID-19 has underscored our housing system’s alarming vulnerability, and shows us that we are only as healthy as the least sheltered, least cared-for among us. We have an opportunity to respond to the urgency of today in a way that transforms the future.

10 Lessons from Activists in Puerto Rico

Aysha Pamukcu, Jessie Bluedorn Women Donors Network
June 2019

Lessons from grassroots activists about Puerto Rico's deep-rooted challenges as well as promising solutions & visions for a more just future.

Students need more teachers, not police

Aysha Pamukcu, Cesar De La Vega, Kanwarpal Dhaliwal San Francisco Chronicle
February 2019

Over-policed, under-resourced environments make students feel less safe & supported. What's needed is caring relationships & trust.

Using taxes for health & prosperity

Aysha Pamukcu et al National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine
September 2018

Exploring "sin" taxes and tax credits to create health equity and a pipeline of financing for population health.

Reduce sugary drinks: a policy playbook

Aysha Pamukcu, Melissa Peters ChangeLab Solutions
September 2018

An overview of 10 common and cutting-edge strategies for communities to reduce consumption of sugary drinks for health & equity.

The epidemic of trauma at our border

Aysha Pamukcu, Hannah Sheehy Medium
July 2018

The public health crisis of family separations at our border was caused by government policy, and therefore, policy can help fix it.

6 policies that fall short for families

Aysha Pamukcu, Hannah Sheehy Medium
April 2018

Learn about 6 federal policies that fall short of their promise to support the health and well-being of working families.

State laws that support breastfeeding

Aysha Pamukcu, Sabrina Adler, Derek Carr The Policy Surveillance Program
April 2018

This resource identifies key features of state laws and regulations regarding recommendations or requirements for hospitals related to any of the 10 steps to successful breastfeeding.

10 local laws that may be harming you

Aysha Pamukcu Medium
March 2018

Even laws that seem everyday or harmless can have harmful effects on our health and community.

Improving Muslim Youth PE Participation

Aysha Pamukcu (adapted with permission from the University of Birmingham) UC San Diego Center for Community Health
December 2017

Education guide for SDUSD P.E. teachers on what barriers may exist for Muslim youth in physical activity and how to help ensure Muslim youth have an environment where they can thrive and live a healthy lifestyle.

Preemption analysis of alcohol taxes

Aysha Pamukcu, James Mosher, Sabrina Adler, Ryan Treffers Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs
March 2017

Local alcohol taxes present an important opportunity to improve local health equity and prosperity.

Healthy food policy in San Diego County

Aysha Pamukcu, Phebe Gibson, Ellie Gladstone, Hannah Sheehy UC San Diego Center for Community Health
July 2016

This report identifies three key policy strategies (farmers’ markets, community agriculture, and healthy government procurement policies) that jurisdictions can deploy to improve the environment in which people purchase food.

Using healthy food service guidelines

Aysha Pamukcu, Manel Kappagoda, Ray Leung Exceed Tool
December 2016

This resource explains how governments can use healthy food service guidelines and provides useful information on how to include them in contracts.

Model healthy housing policies

Aysha Pamukcu ChangeLab Solutions
March 2015

Our home – the place where we spend the most time – can either promote health or make health problems worse.

Stop banks from gambling our money

Aysha Pamukcu Greenlining Institute
December 2013

Banks can gamble if they want, but they shouldn't be able to do so with depositors’ money, and not with taxpayer money.

Poverty in CA is worse than you think

Aysha Pamukcu Greenlining Institute
October 2013

A shocking 22 percent of Californians are living in poverty. And this burden falls on different families in different places very unevenly.

Slow progress on Dodd-Frank reforms

Aysha Pamukcu Greenlining Institute
September 2013

Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect but if fully implemented as Congress intended, the law accomplishes important market safety checks and consumer protections.

California penalizes poor families

Aysha Pamukcu Greenlining Institute
August 2013

Thanks to a decades-old law called the “Maximum Family Grant,” California’s CalWORKs program punished babies for being born poor and, by extension, punished their entire family. CalWORKs is California’s welfare-to-work program.

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