Associate Professor Barbara J. Zabawa has devoted her legal career to health and wellness law. Before obtaining her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School, she obtained a Master’s in Public Health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. After participating in two different fellowships, including the coveted Skadden Fellowship, she sought to carve out a new practice area for lawyers interested in helping practitioners who want healthy lives to be the priority, rather than sickness care.
Prior to joining the UMKC faculty in Fall 2023, Barbara practiced Health Law in several law firms, including her own, the Center for Health and Wellness Law. She also clerked for the Honorable Barbara B. Crabb in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Barbara has written extensively on health and wellness law topics, such as the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA, Medicaid, state licensure laws and federal employment discrimination laws. Her book, Rule the Rules of Workplace Wellness Programs (published by the American Bar Association) is used in several Wellness Law courses across the country.
Professor Zabawa teaches Health Law I, Health Law II and Healthcare Rights Law at UMKC. She is a Wisconsin native now living in the Kansas City area with her husband, twin teenagers, two dogs and two cats. She loves the idea of entrepreneurship and is happy to talk to anyone who has big dreams and ideas.
