Matiangai Sirleaf is the Nathan Patz Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law. She writes and teaches in the areas of global public health law, public international law and international human rights law amongst others.

She previously served as an associate professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, as an assistant professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law and as a Sharswood Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

One of her current lines of research is the disproportionate distribution of highly-infectious diseases and the role of law in facilitating this result. She has several forthcoming and recent law review articles, book chapters, and online publications in this area. Her scholarship has been featured in leading law reviews such as the Cardozo Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Texas Law Review and the UCLA Law Review, as well as online for a such as Afronomics Law, ASIL Insights, Bill of Health, Jurist, Just Security and Opinio Juris. Professor Sirleaf also serves as an editor at Just Security.

She has received a number of prestigious grants, awards, fellowships, and other honors. These include the University of Pittsburgh’s Teaming Grant (2020), the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award (2019), the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics Health Law Scholar Selection (2019), the University Center for International Studies Faculty Fellowship (2018-2019), the Ford Institute for Human Security Research Grant (2016-2018), the New York University Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award (2014) and a Fulbright Fellowship (2004).

A graduate of Yale Law School, the University of Ghana Legon Center for International Affairs, and New York University College of Arts and Sciences, She has served in a number of attorney and fellow roles prior to entering academia.