Joelle Lester is continuing to promote health equity — while helping to counter laws and industry actors that negatively affect communities — as the new executive director of the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
Lester, who joined the center in 2012, served as its director of commercial tobacco control programs for the last five years.
She led partnerships with Black-led organizations advocating for a federal ban on menthol cigarettes; the Food and Drug Administration last year proposed such a regulation. The center’s other focuses are healthy eating and climate justice.
“I’ve had a great opportunity to live a healthy life and I feel very motivated to help change the structural barriers to healthy living that exist for many communities,” said Lester, who began her new role in January.
Lester succeeded center founder Doug Blanke, who retired in June 2022.
Name: Joelle Lester
Title: Executive director, Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Education: B.A., psychology and women’s studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison; J.D., University of Minnesota Law School
Q: Best way to start a conversation with you?
A: I’m very chatty person, so it’s easy to start conversation with me. I like when people tell a good story or if they ask a good question.
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