Robert Greenwald, director of Harvard Law School’s Health Law and Policy Clinic, has been promoted to full Clinical Professor of Law, Dean Martha Minow announced.

“Robert Greenwald’s tireless work on behalf of people living with chronic medical conditions, including people living with HIV exemplifies how advocacy makes a difference, especially for those who do not have easy access to health care or benefits,” said Minow. “Robert has worked with students and collaborators to build a model for the nation. We at HLS are so lucky to work alongside with Robert; he is a treasure.”

Greenwald has taught at HLS since 1989. He is currently a senior clinical instructor, a lecturer on law and managing director of the WilmerHale Legal Services Center in Jamaica Plain. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he taught “Family, Domestic Violence and LGBT Law: Litigating in the Family Courts,” and a clinical workshop “Health, Disability and Estate Planning: Law and Policy.”

“I’m so fortunate to have the opportunity to teach and mentor Harvard Law School students on issues that I care so much about. We start from the premise that access to quality health care is a right and not a privilege and then work on the state, national and international levels to make this a reality,” Greenwald said.

He founded the Health Law and Policy Clinic in 1987 as the nation’s first law school-based AIDS law clinic. The Clinic is recognized as a national leader in efforts to improve health care access and health outcomes for uninsured low-income people. Under Greenwald’s leadership, the Clinic is at the forefront of health law and policy issues, and it was actively engaged in the design and passage of 2010 federal health reform legislation that expands Medicaid coverage to more than 15 million low-income, uninsured Americans. The Clinic remains very active in implementation of federal health care reform.

In February, Greenwald was awarded a Positive Leadership Award for the third year in a row from the National Association of People with AIDS. The award is NAPWA’s highest recognition of service to people living with HIV and AIDS, honoring elected officials and advocates who have made major contributions to improving the lives of people living with HIV. He has also received awards recognizing the importance of his work from HLS Lambda and Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and the Cities of Boston and Cambridge.

Greenwald is a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, the co-chair of the HIV Health Care Access Working Group, and a member of the board of the Bessie Tart Wilson Initiative for Children and the Technical Assistance Collaborative for Housing. He has served as the director of Public Policy and Legal Affairs for the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts; as an advisor to the President’s National Commission on AIDS and the HRSA/CDC Community Advisory Board; as a board member of the AIDS Action Council of Washington D.C. and the National Lesbian and Gay Bar Association; and as a visiting professor at Northeastern University School of Law.

Greenwald holds a B.A. from Vassar College and a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.