Tomar Pierson-Brown is an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Health Law Certificate Program. Pierson-Brown teaches Civil Procedure and Education Law. Her scholarship addresses health justice issues and explores the intersections of systems thinking, design, and law.
Before joining the Pitt Law faculty, Pierson-Brown was an Instructor and Supervising Attorney in the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia – David A. Clarke School of Law; an attorney with Children’s Law Center in Washington, D.C.; and an Equal Justice Works fellow with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.
- JD, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
- LLM, University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law
Education & Training
Recent Publications
Select Publications
- Transition Design as Health Justice Praxis, 32 Georgetown J. Poverty Law Pol. 251 (2025).
- Using a Transition Design Approach to Explore the Adolescent Shift to Adulthood, 23 Int’l J. Qual. Method. (2024). (with Juliet T. Jarrell, Olivia M. Stransky, Jake Frazier, Andrew McCormick, Marlo Perry, Jacquelin Rankine, Loreta Matheo, and Traci M. Kazmerski)
- It’s Not Irony, it’s Interest Convergence: A CRT Perspective on Racism as Public Health Crisis Statements, 50(4) J. Law Med. Ethics 693 (2022)
- Setting the Health Justice Agenda: Addressing Health Inequity & Injustice in the Post-Pandemic Clinic, 28 Clin. L. Rev. 45 (2021) (with Emily A. Benfer, James Bhandary-Alexander, Yael Cannon, and Medha D. Makhlouf)
- (Systems) Thinking Like a Lawyer, 26 Clin. L. Rev. 515 (2020)
Recent Presentations
- Legal Elements of Health Care Transition, Bridges to Transition Conference, UPMC Children’s Hospital – Pittsburgh, PA (2025)
- (Panelist) Youth Mental Health and Access to Care, Health Law and Advancing Equitable Access to Care for Youth Symposium, American University Washington College of Law – Washington, DC (2025)
- Theory + Community: Toward Health Justice Praxis, 47th Annual ASLME Health Law Professors Conference, Temple University Beasley School of Law – Philadelphia, PA (2024)
- Applied Design Thinking in the Context of ABA Standard 303(c), ADI Annual Meeting, Penn State Dickinson Law (2024)
- Where DEIB meets Academic Freedom: The Tea and The Tips, AALS Annual Meeting, Section on Balance & Well-Being in Legal Education – Washington, D.C. (2024)
- Facilitating Difficult Classroom Discussions, University of New Hampshire School of Law – Concord, NH (2023)
- A Transition Design Approach to Studying & Reforming the Civil Justice Ecosystem, Law and Society Conference – San Juan, PR (2023)
- (Systems)Thinking Like a Lawyer, Future of Food Law Conference – Wageningen University & Research (WUR) – Netherlands (2023)
Research Interests
Health Justice
Education Law
Civil Procedure
Law & Design
Access to Justice
