Manel Kappagoda is a senior staff attorney with the Public Health Law Center, providing legal technical assistance on complex projects at the intersection of law and public health. She is a member of the Center’s Public Health Infrastructure team.

Before joining the Public Health Law Center, she served as the deputy director of the Tracing Health program at the Public Health Institute and as a vice president at ChangeLab Solutions, a nonprofit organization that uses the tools of law and policy to advance health equity. Earlier in her career she worked as an attorney and director at the East Bay Community Law Center, a nonprofit law center that serves as the community law clinic for UC Berkeley Law. From 2017 to 2019 she was a member of the Advisory Committee of the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity.

She is a member of the City of Berkeley’s Community Health Commission which advises the City Council on matters pertaining to achieving health equity in Berkeley.

Education
B.A., University of California, Davis
M.P.H., University of California, Berkeley
J.D., University of California, San Francisco