Professor Kate Schostok attended Mount Holyoke College in
Massachusetts for her undergraduate degree. She majored in psychology and
sociology, with a concentration in criminology. Professor Schostok intended to
pursue a career in criminal law, so she interned during the summers with the
Illinois State Police, the Lake County Public Defender’s Office, and various
criminal defense firms. However, her family is a blend of attorneys and health
professionals so she always felt some underlying interest in medicine and
health policy. As a result, she incorporated neuro-scientific approaches and
public health concerns into her criminal psychology research.
After starting the JD program at DePaul, Professor Schostok
was exposed to the broad area of health law and she quickly focused most of her
studies on medical malpractice, public health, and healthcare regulation. She
served as a staff writer for the HLI newsletter, now known as the E-Pulse, and
a student board member. She also received her Health Law Certificate while at
DePaul.
While in school, Professor Schostok worked at a civil
litigation firm, and then at Power Rogers & Smith in downtown Chicago. Following graduation, she worked as a
contract attorney in the areas of medical malpractice and personal injury,
while pursuing her Master of Laws in Health Law degree at Loyola University
Chicago School of Law. During that time,
Professor Schostok published in the areas of risk management and patient
safety, healthcare fraud and abuse, and healthcare technology. She accepted a
position as an attorney advisor for the Social Security Administration in 2009
and began teaching the Healthcare Fraud and Abuse course at DePaul. Professor
Schostok served as an Advisory Board member to the DePaul Health Law Institute
until 2013, when she stepped down to take over as Director of what is now, the
Mary and Michael Jaharis Health Law Institute.
There are numerous reasons why Professor Schostok remained
active in the DePaul law community following graduation and why she eventually
joined the staff at the College of Law. She says that the most influential
factors are her fond memories of her academic career while a student at DePaul,
the opportunities afforded to her through the HLI, as well as her father’s
experience as a graduate of the College of Law in 1962. The HLI program was one
of the first of its kind that grew out of a public health concerns and
awareness for health lawyers to become more involved. JHLI maintains strong
ties to lawyers in the Chicagoland area and across the nation. Professor
Schostok is very proud to be a graduate and now employee of DePaul.
Professor Schostok served on the Advisory Board as Chair of
the Student Outreach Committee for four years before resigning to take over as
Director in 2013. In 2015, Professor Wendy Netter Epstein was appointed Faculty
Director and the Jaharis Faculty Fellow and Professor Schostok was appointed
the Executive Director of JHLI. Professor Epstein and she worked closely to
oversee all aspects of the Institute.
The primary focus of the JHLI is the students at DePaul. In
2013, JHLI redeveloped a student board for the Institute. With the assistance
of the board and Professor Epstein, JHLI has been able to grow our programming
offerings at the summer scholar program significantly. The Institute now has
over 60 fellows and corporate sponsorship for our lecture series. We have been
able to offer our annual symposium in collaboration with other institutes and
departments and offer both CLE and CME credit. We have doubled the size of our
summer scholars program to offer stipends and summer positions at some of the
most prestigious health law departments in Chicago, including Walgreens, the
AMA, Accretive Health, Baxter, Rush, Presence, and Husch Blackwell.
As Executive Director of JHLI, Professor Schostok is
responsible for overseeing Institute activities, including all programming,
fundraising, marketing and social media presence, externship and job
development, publications, and budgeting. She works closely with the faculty
committee, including Professor Epstein and the other health law faculty, to
develop the health law curriculum and strengthen the academic reputation of our
department. Professor Schostok works with the Journal of Health Care Law staff
in planning the annual symposium and selecting peer reviewers. She also serves
as the liaison to the JHLI Advisory Board and faculty advisor to the JHLI
Student Board of Directors.
The recent endowment has opened a world of opportunity to
develop additional online course offerings, explore academic research and
programming at the intersection of health law IP, and further develop our
summer scholar program to offer new and exciting opportunities for the JHLI
students. JHLI is looking for collaborative opportunities with other
departments and institutes to offer an interdisciplinary approach to our
discussions. They also plan to continue to develop our professional mentorship
program to connect students with passionate and dedicated members of the legal
community who may assist them in navigating their career in this great
field.
“We have accomplished a lot in the past few years with the
help of the dedicated faculty and staff, our passionate students, and the
generous Jaharis foundation endowment, but there is much work remaining,” says
Professor Schostok. She believes JHLI has a bright future and the Institute
will strive to ensure that we offer our students and the community a high level
of coursework, career opportunities in health law and intersecting fields, and
programming addressing the current state of healthcare in this country and
internationally.
Professor Schostok hopes that our students and alumni are
excited about the success and rebirth of the Institute. The renaming of the
Institute and the endowment funds will allow for significant growth over the
next decade and our students and graduates have remained steadfast in their
support of our efforts. Professor Schostok and JHLI plan to offer exciting
programming and even better opportunities in the professional world for our
students.
We encourage alumni to remain involved through our Advisory
Board, mentorship offerings, peer review opportunities, and summer scholar
program. We highly recommend that students take advantage of any and all of the
JHLI opportunities and program offerings and remain active participants in the
Institute’s efforts through the student board and volunteering their time to
assist. JHLI has an active presence in social media now and offers many ways
for students and alumni to publish through our online publications. Please ask
us for more information if interested and, as always, thank you for being a
part of JHLI!
Kate Reynolds
is currently a 2L at DePaul University College of Law. Ms. Reynolds completed
her undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois Springfield. Ms.
Reynolds wishes to pursue a career in Health Law after graduating in May of
2017.