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When Professor Emerita Eleanor DeArman Kinney died in 2018, her colleagues at the health law center she founded at the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law wanted to find a way to honor her legacy.

The result is a special memorial issue of the Indiana Health Law Review, dedicated to preserving the legacy of Professor Kinney, who joined the law school faculty in 1984 and in 1986 founded the school’s internationally recognized Center for Law and Health (later renamed the William S. and Christine S. Hall Center for Law and Health).

The special issue is available online. Print copies will be available in March.

One of the country’s leading experts in health law, Professor Kinney was a widely published author and respected lecturer on America’s health care system, medical malpractice and health coverage for the poor until her death on November 16, 2018, at the age of 71.

“Eleanor Kinney was a leader on issues ranging from Medicare and Medicaid to health care as a human right and her scholarship had a tremendous impact in health law,” said IU McKinney Dean Andy Klein. “This special memorial issue will have great meaning to health law scholars, the wider health law community and the many, many McKinney alumni whose lives she touched.”

Planning for the special edition of the Indiana Health Law Review began last spring, with an initial call for proposals from authors presenting new work, with reflections on Professor Kinney’s legacy, or how the work submitted was influenced by Professor Kinney.

Star Meyer, Editor-in-Chief of the Indiana Health Law Review said that it was an honor to have worked with Executive Managing Editor Taylor Carpenter (left), Executive Editor Sarah Blodgett (right) and Executive Articles Editor Dr. Melanie Heniff, M.D., on the issue.

“The moment that we started working on this issue in memory of Professor Kinney, we knew it was special,” Meyer said. “Each author has provided a unique perspective on Professor Kinney's work, which has left all of us reflecting on the opportunities that her legacy has provided for us as students of IU McKinney.”

Working on the issue gave Dr. Heniff a greater understanding of Professor Kinney’s life and work, she said.

“I regret that I never met her because I think we would have had so many common interests to talk about,” Dr. Heniff said. “Through working on this issue, I feel like I know her through her writing and what has been written about her. She left a remarkable legacy, both personally and professionally.”

In writing the introduction to the special issue, IU McKinney Professor of Law Robert A. Katz noted that it is fitting that Professor Kinney’s achievements are acclaimed in her academic home and published in the Indiana Health Law Review, which she helped found and nurture.

“This issue is an opportunity to take stock of Professor Kinney's enormous contributions to health law,” he said. “There is a great deal to celebrate. Professor Kinney is one of the most important legal scholars ever to serve on the McKinney Law faculty.”

Professor Kinney served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States, President Clinton’s Task Force for Health Care Reform, and the Indiana Commission on Health Care for the Working Poor. She was appointed by the governor of Indiana to the Executive Board of the Indiana State Department of Health and to other task forces and advisory boards. She also served as chair of the Patient Safety Subcommittee of the Indiana Commission on Excellence in Health Care.

During 1999-2000, Professor Kinney taught and conducted research as a Fulbright Fellow at the National University of La Plata in La Plata, Argentina. She oversaw the law school’s Latin American Law Summer Program and served as its executive director until 2007. She also served as an adjunct professor at the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and at the IU School of Medicine.

Under her leadership, the Hall Center for Law and Health conducted research on such topics as Medicare appeals, Medicaid rule-making, and bioethical issues in the treatment of AIDS patients. During her tenure, the curriculum expanded to include joint degrees in law and health administration, law and medicine, and law and law and public health. She also brought in research funding from such entities as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the AARP Andrus Foundation to explore such issues as Medicare home health benefits and Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act, among others.

Professor Kinney authored or co-authored numerous law review articles, book chapters and book reviews. She also published Protecting American Health Care Consumers (Duke University Press 2002) and edited the Guide to Medicare Coverage Decision-Making and Appeals (ABA Publishing 2002).

Professor Kinney earned her B.A. and J.D. from Duke University, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and an M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina. After graduating from law school, she practiced law for four years, then worked as an estate planning officer for Duke University Medical Center for two years. After earning her master’s degree in public health, she served as program analyst for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. Immediately prior to joining the IU McKinney faculty, she was assistant general counsel of the American Hospital Association.