Program Staff and National Advisory Council
National Program Office
Scott Burris, J.D.
Director, Public Health Law Research Program
Scott Burris is a professor of law at Temple University, where he directs the Center for Health Law, Policy and Practice, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research program. His work focuses on how law influences public health, and what interventions can make laws and law enforcement practices healthier in their effects. He is the author of more than 100 books, book chapters, articles and reports on issues including urban health, HIV/AIDS, research ethics, global health governance, and the health effects of criminal law and drug policy. His work has been supported by organizations including the Open Society Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Department for International Development, and the CDC. He has served as a consultant to numerous U.S. and international organizations including WHO, UNODC and UNDP. Burris is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and Yale Law School.
Heidi Grunwald, Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Public Health Law Research Program
Heidi Grunwald was previously an assistant vice president for research and strategic initiatives at Temple University, overseeing the financial planning of the pre-award research portfolio including the offices of Technology Transfer and Clinical Trials. She was also involved in large-scale research development and worked as liaison to the vice president for government and public affairs as the primary contact for all Temple University federal earmark requests. Heidi is also currently the Interim Director for the Institute for Survey Research at Temple University. Recent interests include the use of cross-classified hierarchical linear and propensity score models to examine quasi-experimental data on juvenile recidivism, and youth functional assessment scales. She holds a B.A. degree in mathematics, M.A. in mathematics education, M.S. in statistics and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Higher Education Administration, Research, Evaluation and Assessment.
Jennifer Ibrahim, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Director, Public Health Law Research Program
Jennifer Ibrahim is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health at Temple University. She earned a B.S. degree from Boston College in 1997, an M.P.H. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1999 and a Ph.D. in Health Services and Policy Analysis and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002. Prior to joining the faculty at Temple University, she was an American Legacy Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. Ibrahim's area of research interest is in health policy development and implementation, particularly at the state and local level. Most recently, she has been investigating means to address tobacco use through policy modifications and integration within existing public health systems. In addition, Ibrahim is also beginning new projects exploring the infrastructure, communications and policies regarding domestic food safety.
Alexander C. Wagenaar, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Public Health Law Research Program
Alex Wagenaar is a professor of epidemiology and health policy research at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He has published a book, numerous book chapters, and over 160 scientific articles on social epidemiology, public health policy, legal evaluations, community intervention trials, alcohol and tobacco studies, violence prevention, traffic safety, and injury control. He has a strong interest in evaluation of public policy changes and community-level interventions, using both randomized trial and controlled time-series research designs and statistical methods. In 1999, Wagenaar received the prestigious Jellinek award for lifetime achievement in community intervention and policy evaluation research on alcohol. In 2001 he received the Innovator's Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and in 2004 was named by the Institute for Scientific Information as a Highly Cited Researcher, an honor limited to less than one-half of one percent of published scientists worldwide. In 2009 he received the Prevention Scientist Award from the Society for Prevention Research for his contributions in research to advance the methods and outcomes of prevention research.
Marek Sulzynski, M.P.A.
Policy and Research Network Coordinator, Public Health Law Research Program
Marek Sulzynsk, M.P.A. joined the PHLR program in December 2009. Prior to PHLR, Sulzynski was a program associate on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Public Health Team where he worked on a range of public health issues including public health law, food safety and tobacco control. Previously, he was a program analyst at the N.J. Governor’s Office of Economic Growth. In that role, he was involved in shaping economic development policy and developed strategies to integrate urban economic development and public health. He also served as a policy developer and legislative analyst for the N.J. Division of Family Development as and held positions at the NJ Judiciary and the Rutgers School of Social Work. Sulzynski received an M.P.A. degree from the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration in Newark and a B.A. in political science from Rutgers College in New Brunswick.
Evan Anderson, J.D.
Senior Legal Fellow, Public Health Law Research Program
Evan Anderson is a Temple University Law School graduate. Anderson was previously a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Senior Fellow at the Centers for Law and the Public's Health: A Collaborative at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities. At Hopkins, Anderson worked on a wide array of public health law issues including, emergency preparedness and infectious disease prevention and control. Anderson has also worked on projects related to harm reduction, access to essential medicines and regulation of blood products. Anderson received his BA with a double major in economics and political science from the University of Pennsylvania. Anderson is admitted to the bar in the states of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Sharon Samuels, M.S.
Executive Assistant, Public Health Law Research Program
Sharon Samuels was previously the executive assistant to the Senior Vice President for Research and Strategic Initiatives at Temple University. Prior to that she supported the Institute for Public Affairs at Temple as Office Manager and was a project coordinator for the Philadelphia Outcome Management Project, which focused on the Department of Human Services, Children and Youth Division. During her tenure working with POMP, she oversaw research and training. Samuels received her M.S. degree from West Chester University, where she also received her B.A. with a major in criminal justice and minor in political science.
Methods Core
Michelle Mello, Ph.D., J.D.
Methods Core Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Michelle Mello is a professor of law and public health in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. She holds a J.D. degree from the Yale Law School, a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.Phil. from Oxford University, where she was a Marshall Scholar, and a B.A. from Stanford University. Mello conducts empirical research into issues at the intersection of law, ethics, and health policy. She is the author of more than 80 articles and book chapters on public health law, the performance of the medical malpractice system, the effect of tort litigation on health care and health outcomes, medical errors and patient safety, research ethics, the obesity epidemic, pharmaceuticals, and bioethics. Her work employs methods spanning traditional legal scholarship, ethical analysis, econometric analysis, epidemiologic study designs, and qualitative research. Mello is a Greenwall Faculty Scholar in Bioethics and the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research. In 2006, she received the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award from AcademyHealth for exceptional promise for contributions to the field of health services research
Jeffrey Swanson, Ph.D.
Methods Core Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Jeffrey Swanson is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He is a medical sociologist (Ph.D., Yale, 1985) with expertise in psychiatric epidemiology and mental health law and policy studies. Swanson is the author or co-author of over 140 research publications on topics including violence and severe mental illness, the impact of involuntary outpatient commitment law, and psychiatric advance directives. Swanson was principal investigator of the first major study of the implementation of psychiatric advance directive laws for adults with severe mental illness in the United States, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He is the recipient of an Independent Research Scientist Career Award from the National Institute of Mental Health in support of his research program on violence and severe mental illness. He is a member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment. He directs research for the National Resource Center on Psychiatric Advance Directives. He is associate editor of Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research.
Jennifer Wood, Ph.D.
Methods Core Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Jennifer Wood is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University. She earned a B.A. degree in criminology at the University of Ottawa in 1994 and received both an M.A. and Ph.D. in criminology from the University of Toronto in 1995 and 2000, respectively. Prior to joining Temple, Jennifer served as a Fellow for the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at the Australian National University. To date Wood's work has centered on trends in the delivery of security within the broader context of shifts in regulation. Her current research in Philadelphia is exploring the connections between security and public health and in particular the roles of police in shaping healthy behaviors and environments. She teaches courses on criminal behavior, critical issues in law enforcement, crime and social policy and approaches to qualitative research.
National Advisory Committee
Gary Cox, J.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Gary Cox is the director of the Oklahoma City-County Health Department . Previosuly he was the director of the Tulsa City-County Health Department, a metropolitan Health Department serving over 550,000 in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. As director, Cox's responsibilities included Public Health Chief Executive Officer for the City and County of Tulsa. Cox began his career as an educator. He has been privileged to serve in public health for over 34 years, beginning as an environmentalist. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Tulsa and was previously legal counsel for the Health Department, as well as adjunct professor of environmental law. Cox was previously Assistant Director of the Tulsa Health Department. Leadership responsibilities include: Immediate Past President, National Association of City-County Health Officials (NACCHO); Past President, Oklahoma Public Health Association; member of the American Public Health Association; Past President, Indian Nations Council of Governments; Past President, Community Health Net; Executive Committee, Tulsa Turning Point and National Public Health Leadership Society; Former Member of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) Emergency Responder Advisory Panel. Cox also serves on the Tulsa Community Hospital Authority Board of Directors. Additionally, Cox served on the Community-Based Participatory Prevention Research Grant Review Panel for the CDC. He is also a visiting Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma, College of Public Health.
Allan Fox, J.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Allan M. Fox is the founding partner of Fox Kiser, a nationally recognized firm of interdisciplinary experts specializing in strategic planning and management of special projects at the intersection of health, the biomedical sciences, law and public policy for private industry, universities and patient organizations. Prior to establishing the firm, Fox served as Chief Legislative Assistant and then Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Jacob K. Javits of New York. Fox also served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Health and Scientific Research Subcommittee, chaired by Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In Pennsylvania, Fox was active in public health serving in such capacities as Assistant Attorney General and General Counsel of the Governor's Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Counsel to the Commissioner of Health, and as a Member of the Attorney General's Special Task Force on Medical Records Privacy. He also was an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia. Fox is a member the Board of Trustees of the Alliance for Aging Research and, he is also on the Board of Visitors of Temple Law School. Fox received his J.D. from Temple and his LL.M. from Yale Law School where he was a Fellow in Law, Science and Medicine.
Susan Gerard, M.B.A.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Susan Gerard has been a leader in health care policy and systems in Arizona for more than two decades. She served as Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services from April 2005 to July 2008. She oversaw one of the largest departments in Arizona State Government, with a budget of more than $1 billion. Gerard previously served as a member of Governor Janet Napolitano's administration as a policy adviser for health care issues, assisting with crucial decisions involving state and federal budgets of nearly $8.1 billion directly linked to services for more than 1.2 million residents. As a member of the Arizona Legislature, Gerard served as Chair of the House and Senate Health Committees for 10 years. She championed most of the major healthcare legislation in Arizona in the last two decades. As a lawmaker, she also led efforts to fund and create intervention and prevention programs such as Healthy Families, Healthy Start and Head Start. "Much of the progress we've made in health care is a direct result of legislation Susan introduced and improvements she made at DHS," said Janet Napolitano, U.S. Director of Homeland Security and former Arizona Governor.Today, Gerardhelps oversee Arizona's only public safety-net hospital as vice chair of the Maricopa Integrated Health System Governing Board. Gerard received a B,A. degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and a M.B.A. from Arizona State University.
Robert Ianni, J.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Robert Ianni is a graduate of the Michigan State University College of Law. He has been with the Michigan Attorney General's Office for 35 years and has served in the insurance and banking area, as chief of the Criminal Division, as director of Homeland Security and Special Projects, and chief of the Tobacco and Special Litigation Division. He is currently on Attorney General Mike Cox's executive management team, as head the Consumer and Environmental Protection Bureau. Ianni has represented the Attorney General on numerous boards, including the DARE advisory board, the Criminal Justice Information System advisory board, the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council, the East Lansing Civil Disturbance Review Commission, the Wind Energy Resources Zone Board, and the Attorney General's Opinion Review Board and the Professional Responsibility, Education, and Policy Board. He is a frequent speaker on a variety of legal topics involving Homeland Security. He co-authored an article that appeared in the summer 2003 edition of the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health on lethal predators and has organized conferences and authored several emergency legal issues manuals for lawyers, judges, and emergency responders.
Wilfredo Lopez, J.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Wilfredo Lopez was born and raised in The Bronx. He graduated from the City College of New York and from Brooklyn Law School. Lopez joined the New York City Department of Health as a staff attorney in 1979, became Deputy General Counsel in 1980, and was appointed General Counsel in 1992. He has authored and contributed to academic articles, and is a co-editor and co-author of the textbook Law in Public Health Practice, (OUP) . In December of 2006. Lopez retired from the Department and was appointed General Counsel Emeritus to the New York City Health Department and Counsel Emeritus to the New York City Board of Health. He is currently performing professional consulting services in the field of public health and public health law. In collaboration with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lopez served as the executive editor of "The National Action Agenda for Public Health Legal Preparedness," and spearheaded the New York City Health Code Revision Project, the first such effort in 50 years.
Anup Malani, J.D., Ph.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Anup Malani is a professor of law and the Aaron Director Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School. Malani received his Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 2003, his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 2000, and his B.A. from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in 1992. Malani clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams on the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2000-2001 and for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court from 2001-2002. He is currently a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, in Cambridge, MA, and a university fellow at Resource for the Future, in Washington, D.C. Malani's research interests include the empirical evaluation of legal rules and systems, U.S. health law and health care policy, design and inferences from clinical trials, and control of infectious diseases. His work has been published in leading economics and legal journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Econometrics, Harvard Law Review, and Columbia Law Review. He is an editor of the Journal of Law and Economics. During 2008-2009 he was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the acting director at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard.
Anthony D. Moulton, Ph.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Tony Moulton joined CDC in 1993 and has been co-director of the CDC Public Health Law Program since its inception in 2000. He also has served as Acting Chief of Public Health Practice, reporting to the CDC Director; and as acting deputy director, associate director for policy, program development and academic affairs, and special assistant for information and communications policy in the CDC Public Health Practice Program Office. He was the lead CDC technical liaison to the Institute of Medicine committee that prepared the 2003 report "The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century". In 1993-1994, he consulted with the Georgia Initiative for Children and Families and was a CDC assignee to the Georgia Division of Public Health. Moulton earlier served as Deputy Commissioner for Budget and Planning, State of Missouri, directing the technical staff to the Office of the Governor responsible for legislative, fiscal, intergovernmental, and other policy analysis and development. Moulton served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Gujarat, India, and holds a Ph.D. degree in political science from the University of Chicago, with specialization in public policy, and a B.A. in government from Dartmouth College.
Robert S. Ogilvie, Ph.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Robert Ogilvie directs Planning for Healthy Places at Public Health Law & Policy. Over the past 15 years he has worked extensively in community development and planning to help improve low- and middle-income neighborhoods. Prior to joining PHLP, he served as a faculty member in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley, and as director of volunteers at the Partnership for the Homeless in New York City. He has also worked as a consultant to city and county governments, nonprofit organizations, and neighborhood activists. He is the author of Voluntarism, Community Life, and the American Ethic (Indiana University Press, 2004), an examination of what motivates people to participate in volunteer programs. Oglivie is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of South Carolina, and he holds a Ph.D. degree in political science from Columbia University.
Wendy E. Parmet, J.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Wendy E. Parmet is George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished Professor and Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law and program director of the law school's dual degree J.D.-M.P.H. program with Tufts University School of Medicine. She is the author of the Populations, Public Health, and the Law (Georgetown University Press, 2009) and with Professor Patricia Illingworth, of Ethical Health Care (Prentice Hall, 2005) as well as numerous articles in medical journals and law reviews on public health law, health law, and disability law. She teaches Public Health Law, Health Law, Disability Law, Bioethics, Torts and Constitutional Law. Parmet is a member of the Board of Directors of Health Law Advocates and is on the Board of Directors of Health Care for All. She is also on the ABA's AIDS Coordinating Committee and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She received her J.D.degree from Harvard Law School in 1982 and her B.A. from Cornell University in 1979.
Mary Story, Ph.D., R.D.
National Advisory Committee Member, Public Health Law Research Program
Mary Story is a professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, an associate dean for students in the School of Public Health, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Pediatrics School of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She is director of the National Program Office for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research program that supports research on environmental and policy strategies to promote healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity. Story received the Ph.D. degree in nutrition science and her interests are in the area of child and adolescent nutrition, and childhood obesity prevention. Story has conducted several school and community-based obesity prevention studies. She has over 350 scientific publications in child nutrition and obesity prevention. Story was a member of the Institute of Medicine, Committee on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth; Committee on Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools; Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention Actions for Local Governments; and is currently on the IOM standing committee for childhood obesity prevention.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Staff and Consultants
Michelle Ann Larkin, J.D., M.S., R.N.
Public Health Team Director, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Michelle Ann Larkin, J.D., M.S., R.N. directs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Team to improve the performance of the federal, state and local public health systems; build the evidence for public health practice and policy; and advocate for the use of law and policy to improve health. As part of this work, Larkin is leading efforts to build the field of public health law by strengthening the evidence for effective public health laws and by supporting public health practitioners, their legal counsel, and policy-makers in their efforts to use law and policy to preserve, protect and improve health. She is also a member of the Quality/Equality Team, working with communities to improve the quality of health care of their citizens by aligning those who give care, get care and pay for care. She is a member of the American Public Health Association, the American Bar Association and the New Jersey Bar. Prior to joining the Foundation, Larkin worked as a policy analyst at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as a legislative fellow for the U.S. Senate, and as an oncology nurse at University of Maryland Medical System. Larkin received a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law, an M.S. in nursing/health policy from the University of Maryland and a B.S.N. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Angela K. McGowan, J.D., M.P.H.
Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Angela K. McGowan, J.D., M.P.H., is a senior program officer with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Group working with the Public Health and Childhood Obesity Teams. She focuses on advancing the use of policy, advocacy and law to aid in creating a strong and comprehensive public health system and on issues ranging from public health preparedness to promoting healthy eating and active living. Prior to working at RWJF, she was a health scientist/public health law analyst at the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Legislation at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC in Atlanta. Her prior public health experience includes: serving in CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service working primarily with the Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide) on violence issues and working as a legal services officer with Georgia's Division of Public Health. Angela received a law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law, a master's in public health from the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, and a bachelor's in International Relations from the College of William and Mary.
Prabhu Ponkshe, M.A.
Communications Consultant, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Prabhu Ponkshe is president of Health Matrix, Inc., a communications consulting firm that focuses on science, policy and healthcare issues. Prabhu is a communications consultant for the Public Health Law Research (PHLR) program and other programs supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He provides strategic communications input from funding research through promoting research results. Health Matrix also provides policy communications support to leading scientific societies and other organizations. Prabhu has previously held senior positions in major health organizations and a health communications firm specializing in government consulting. He has also been an independent media relations consultant to major national advocacy groups. He started his career as a reporter for Reuters. Prabhu has an M.A. degree in mass communications and a degree in law.
