The Richard Payne Lecture and Award in Faith, Justice, and Health Care highlights and honors academic, clinical, and lay leaders who in their work and research embody the late Dr. Payne’s spirit of caring for the whole person.

The 2024 Richard Payne Lecturer and Awardee was Dayna Bowen Matthew, J.D., Ph.D., the dean and Harold H. Greene Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School. Dean Matthew is a leader in public health and civil rights law who focuses on disparities in health, health care, and the social determinants of health. She also is the founder and inaugural faculty director of GW’s newly chartered Equity Institute, an interdisciplinary research hub dedicated to addressing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic injustice. Dean Matthew is the author of two bestselling books, Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care, and the recently released Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America, and is the co-author of a case book on public health law, ethics, and policy. This year’s Payne Lecture is co-sponsored by the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School, the Center on Law, Race, and Policy at Duke University School of Law, and The Purpose Project at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.