Kirin Goff, JD, MA Director and Professor of Practice in Law
Kirin is a public health lawyer and helped found the Applied Health Policy Institute. She has two Anthropology degrees, including a Bachelor’s in cultural Anthropology from Willamette University and a Master’s in Global Health from Arizona State University, where her studies focused on using community-based participatory research to inform public health policy.
She has worked in several policy-related areas, including policy and legal research and analysis, drafting legislation, rulemaking, litigation, community-based participatory research, and helping candidates form their policy platform. Kirin was a Senior Rules Analyst at the Arizona Department of Health Services, where she drafted regulations, including those adopted in response to the opioid epidemic. Most recently, she worked as a litigator practicing political and constitutional law at the Torres Law Group before joining the University of Arizona. She has taught courses in anthropology, global health, Medicaid, and health policy and regulation. She is particularly interested in health impact assessment, tobacco, Medicaid, and the built environment.
Kirin is an Arizona native passionate about creating healthy communities in her home state and beyond.
Slade Smith, JD Assistant Director
Slade is an Arizona attorney and AHPI's Assistant Director. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, receiving the Ralph W. Aigler Memorial Award for his professional and scholarly contributions to the college. Prior to joining AHPI, he served as a law clerk at the Arizona Court of Appeals for four years. He lives in Tucson, where he enjoys outdoor activities in southern Arizona's beautiful desert and mountain landscapes.
Tara Sklar, JD, MPH Affiliate Faculty
Professor Tara Sklar is the Director of the Health Law & Policy Program at Arizona Law, and she also serves as the Faculty Senior Advisor in Telehealth Law & Policy at the Arizona Telemedicine Program and Innovations in Healthy Aging with University of Arizona Health Sciences. Her teaching and scholarly research spans aging law & policy, bioethics, health technology, and professional responsibility. Her work has appeared in the following peer-reviewed journals: New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and American Journal of Law & Medicine, and is featured on national media outlets Axios, Bloomberg Law, NPR, PBS, among others. Professor Sklar launched and oversees four multidisciplinary, online Graduate Certificates in Health Law and a Master of Legal Studies Health Law & Policy Concentration, which are composed of over 40 courses created in collaboration across seven University of Arizona colleges and global industry leaders.
Heather Carter, Ed. D. Adviser
Heather Carter is an Advisor to the Applied Health Policy Institute and one of its founders. She recently joined the Greater Phoenix Leadership Council as Executive Vice President, where she focuses on issues related to healthcare and education.
Until October 2020, she was an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and an Associate Director of the Arizona Center for Rural Health.
Most notably, Heather has a long history of public service. She served as a state Senator for Legislative District 15 and was Vice Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. Before switching to the Senate, she served in the Arizona House of Representatives for eight years and was Chair of the Health Committee from 2013 to 2018.
She also spent several years as an Associate Clinical Professor at Arizona State University teaching classes in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and was Assistant Dean in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, where she created executive education courses for health professionals on topics related to health policy. She has a Doctorate in Education from Northern Arizona University and a Master’s in Education from Arizona State University.
