Jennifer Rosen Valverde, Esq., M.S.W., is a Clinical Professor of Law at Rutgers U. School of Law in the Education and Health Law Clinic, and Co-Founder/Legal Director of H.E.A.L. Collaborative® (Health, Education, Advocacy & Law), a medical-legal-social work partnership and joint project with Rutgers-N.J. Medical School’s Pediatric Primary Care Clinic. Professor Valverde co-teaches a course on Special Education Law, and supervises graduate students in law, social work, medicine and public health as they collaborate with each other, with families, and with the Greater Newark community to address the non-medical causes of poor health and well-being, i.e. social determinants of health. In H.E.A.L. Collaborative, Professor Valverde and her students provide assistance to families and the community in the areas of special education, public benefits, health insurance appeals, and more, through multi-tiered interventions following a preventive law approach. H.E.A.L.'s assistance and advocacy takes many forms, including social work referrals and case management; public benefits advocacy at the agency level; legal advice and consultation; direct legal representation, including litigation; and policy advocacy.
Professor Valverde has published numerous articles on special education law, cross-systems educational advocacy, social determinants of health, and interprofessional collaboration. She frequently provides training to attorneys, state agency staff, medical and health professionals, and social service organizations, and presents at local and national conferences on these and related topics. Before joining Rutgers in 2001, she represented children at the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian and the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. Professor Valverde received her B.A. in sociology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and is a magna cum laude graduate of the Loyola University–Chicago Schools of Law and Social Work.