Maya Manian (she/her) is a professor of law and Faculty Director of the Health Law and Policy Program at American University Washington College of Law and a PhD candidate in medical sociology at UCSF. Her research examines the intersection of law and reproductive health care, focusing on how legal regulation shapes clinical practice and patient experiences.

Her dissertation, Legal Consciousness and the Side Effects of Abortion Bans: Genetic Counselors’ Perspectives on Navigating Abortion Law in the Post-Dobbs Era, investigates how abortion restrictions reshape prenatal care through the everyday work of genetic counselors. Drawing on in-depth interviews, she explores how counselors interpret abortion law and how these interpretations shape clinical decision-making, professional relationships, and patient care. By centering providers’ interpretive work, the study shows how law is enacted in practice and its implications for equity,  access, and health care workforce sustainability.

Her research has been supported by the Society of Family Planning, the UCSF Newcomer Health Policy Scholarship, and the UCSF Strauss Dissertation Scholarship. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.