Conference Committee – National Vaccine Law Conference

Members of the National Vaccine Law Association Board of Directors are:

Chair: Montrece Ransom, JD, MPH

Montrece McNeill Ransom currently serves as the Director of the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training for the National Network of Public Health Institutes.

Ms. Ransom was appointed as a Presidential Management Fellow and worked at CDC for almost 20 years. For the last 10 years of her service, Ms. Ransom led CDC’s public health law related training and workforce development efforts. She received her law degree from the University of Alabama, her MPH from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, and her Executive Leadership Coaching Certification from Georgetown University. In addition, she has received a certificate in training and facilitation from the Association of Talent Development. Ms. Ransom is the ABA Health Law Section’s 2019 Champion of Diversity and Inclusion Awardee, and the 2017 recipient of the American Public Health Association Jennifer Robbins Award for the Practice of Public Health Law. She is the President-Elect of the American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential.

Devoted to helping people reach their human potential, Ms. Ransom also spends a lot of time working on career pathing and professional development with new public health practitioners and public health lawyers. She is also a well-known public speaker, peer-reviewed published author, the Co-Editor of the George Wyner textbook, Public Health Law: Concepts and Case Studies.

Secretary: Dr. Michelle Fiscus

Dr. Michelle Fiscus is a board-certified pediatrician and public health advocate who practiced general pediatrics in Franklin, TN for 17 years before transitioning to a career in public health in 2016. She served as the medical director of the Tennessee Department of Health’s Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and Immunization Program and led the state’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts until July 2021. Since 2022, she has served as the inaugural Chief Medical Officer of the Association of Immunization Managers, the professional organization of the 64 CDC-funded immunization programs across the U.S. states, territories, and major cities. Dr. Fiscus has served as a senior health policy consultant for the National Academy for State Health Policy and served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Fiscus is a proud graduate of Indiana University and Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her residency in pediatrics at the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Medical Center.

Treasurer: Brian Dean Abramson, Esq., LL.M.

Brian Dean Abramson is the lead author of the legal treatise, Vaccine, Vaccination, and Immunization Law, published by Bloomberg Law in cooperation with the American Health Law Association. He teaches the subject as Adjunct Professor of Vaccine Law at the Florida International University College of Law and the University of Houston Law Center.

Prof. Abramson previously writes for Bloomberg Law, for whom he first authored the vaccine injury claims chapter of Matthew H. Solomson’s Court of Federal Claims: Jurisdiction, Practice, and Procedure, and for whom he wrote extensively in the fields of health and international privacy law. He was a law clerk for the Honorable Pauline Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and interned with the Honorable Susan G. Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Prof. Abramson received an MA in Comparative Sociology from Florida International University, followed by his JD, summa cum laude, from the Florida International University College of Law, and an LLM in intellectual property law with highest honors from the George Washington University Law School.

Member-at-Large: Professor Denise M. Hill

Drake Associate Professor Denise Hill, JD, MPA brings 25-years of health care legal, policy, public administration, and ADR experience to the classroom, practice of law, and community. She continues to practice health and employment law and mediate with the Whitfield & Eddy law firm in Des Moines, Iowa.

Denise is a sought-after speaker, author, media commentator, and thought leader on a variety of contemporary health law and ethics topics. Most recently she authored Vaccine Mandates in the Health Care Workplace: A Legal Primer for Employers published by the American Health Law Association. For many years Denise has advised health care organizations, written, and presented on public health and vaccination law issues at the state and national levels. For example, two decades ago Denise helped to negotiate the Public Health Disaster Emergency provisions in the Iowa Code that were utilized during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Denise was recently named the Vice-Chair for the first National Vaccine Law Conference to be held at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University in September 2022.

Previously, Denise was the Director of Health Law Programs at Drake Law School; practiced law and mediation with the Davis Brown Law Firm, was an Associate Professor in the Colleges of Medicine, Podiatry, and Health Sciences at Des Moines University; and taught for the University of Iowa’s Executive MHA program. Over the years she has won a number of awards that recognize the quality of her teaching and passion for individual student success. In addition to her work in private practice and academia, Denise was an Attorney/Manager of Public & Regulatory Affairs with the Iowa Medical Society and a State of Iowa labor relations attorney.

Denise was a 1990 Harry S. Truman Congressional Scholar who graduated with honors from Drake University (law and MPA), Wartburg College (BA), and Waldorf College (AA).

Member-at-Large and Conference Committee Chair: Dr. René Najera

Dr. René F. Najera is an epidemiologist and Director, Public Health and History of Vaccines, The Susan and Stanley Plotkin Chair in Public Health, College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He is the editor of the History of Vaccines project, with a focus on news and information on vaccines, vaccine science, vaccine research, and the public health implications of vaccine policy. He has worked as a senior epidemiologist at the Fairfax County Health Department in Fairfax, Virginia.

Dr. Najera has a doctorate in public health (DrPH) from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. He is affiliated with the Department of Epidemiology of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and with the George Mason University Department of Global and Community Health.

Member-at-Large: Prof. Dorit Rubinstein Reiss

Professor Reiss is a professor of law at the University of California San Francisco College of Law. She received her undergraduate degree in Law and Political Science from the Faculty of Law in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where she served as Editor in Chief of the Law Review. She then clerked for a year and a half in the Israeli Ministry of Justice’s Department of Public Law, working on a variety of constitutional and administrative law issues.

She received her Ph.D. from the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program in UC Berkeley. Professor Reiss’ initial research examined accountability of agencies at the state, national and international level, with agencies studied including the CPUC, the FAA, and other agencies in the United States and Europe. Increasingly, however, her research and activities are focused on legal and policy issues related to vaccines. She writes about school mandates, policy responses to non-vaccinating, tort issues and administrative issues related to vaccines.

Members of the 2025 National Vaccine Law Conference Committee are:

James M. Beck, Esq.

James joined Reed Smith’s Life Sciences Health Industry, Product Liability, and Appellate Groups in the spring of 2012. James handles complex personal injury and product liability litigation. He has overseen the development of legal defenses, master briefs, and dispositive motions in numerous multidistrict litigation matters and other mass torts. On the appellate side, he has drafted major appellate briefs in significant product liability and related matters, including numerous amicus curiae briefs.

James is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Committee (PLAC) and has sat on PLAC’s case selection committee since 1997. He has written over 70 amicus curiae briefs on product liability issues for PLAC. In 2011, James was awarded the PLAC’s John P. Raleigh Award, the eighth time the group’s highest honor has been bestowed since PLAC’s founding in 1982.

James wrote PLAC’s successful amicus brief in the ground-breaking Tincher v Omega Flex decision where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned 35 years of product liability precedent. Following Tincher, he organized the “Tincher Group” of defense counsel, which has produced scholarship and suggested post-Tincher jury instructions in order to prevent the defense win in Tincher from being undercut.

James has also prepared amicus briefs for many other organizations, including AdvaMed, the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association and several state affiliates, the Business Roundtable, the Pennsylvania Defense Institute, the United States Chamber of Commerce, and the Washington Legal Foundation. James edited the newsletter of the ABA’s Mass Torts Litigation Committee for almost two decades, winning multiple ABA awards.

He is also the founder and co-host of the award-winning Drug & Device Law blog.

Justin Coen, Esq.

Justin Coen is a partner in Venable’s FDA law group, where he guides companies through the complexities of drug, biologic, and device development. He advises clients on every stage of product development, pre-and post-approval regulatory compliance, and commercialization strategies. Justin also has extensive experience negotiating research and development agreements, licenses, and purchase contracts, including contracts with the federal government.

Prior to joining Venable, Justin served as a senior regulatory attorney at the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (JAG), U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), and he has advised the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.

Justin works with a range of clients, including pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and biotech startups, to help them navigate complex regulatory requirements and achieve their business objectives. His expertise includes evaluating marketing application approaches, marketing exclusivity claims, pre- and post-approval GxP compliance, expedited approval mechanisms, priority review vouchers, product labeling issues, animal rule product development, combination products, and advertising and promotion. He also draws on his experience in healthcare policy to help clients understand and shape potential legislative and regulatory changes and, when necessary, respond to government investigations.

Nicholas J. Diamond, Esq.

Nicholas “Nick” Diamond is a Partner at Greenberg Traurig LLP, based in the firm’s Houston, Texas, office. He is a regulatory lawyer with extensive, international experience counseling clients across the food, healthcare, life sciences, medical device, and technology sectors.

While his practice primarily focuses on compliance counseling, he also has experience in global policy advocacy, commercial transactions, enforcement actions and investigations, and ethics and governance.

Nick provides comprehensive compliance and corporate counsel for entities and products regulated by FDA. He has experience counseling clients on matters falling under FDA’s jurisdiction, such as: animal and veterinary products, including animal drugs and drug compounding; cosmetics; food (both human and animal), beverage, and dietary supplements; human pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products, spanning all therapeutic areas; medical devices (especially software-as-a-medical-device) and diagnostics; and vaccines.

Nick is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and University of Houston Law Center, among other academic affiliations.

Gillian Fenton, Esq.

Gillian Fenton is the Executive Director of LST Strategies LLC, an independent law practice dedicated to life sciences transactions and intellectual property strategy. She brings more than 25 years of experience in legal and business development roles across the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, with particular expertise in vaccines, biologics, and government collaborations.

Ms. Fenton previously served as Special Counsel and Senior Counsel for GSK Vaccines in the U.S., where she led legal support for innovation, business development, and strategic R&D partnerships with U.S. government entities including BARDA, DARPA, and NIH. Her work has encompassed licensing, technology transfer, clinical trial agreements, CRADAs, nondilutive funding agreements, and regulatory strategy, with a focus on maximizing business value through intellectual property. She is a former President and Chair of the Licensing Executives Society (USA & Canada) and a current Practitioner in Residence at the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy.

Ms. Fenton received her J.D., cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School and holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Trinity College. She is admitted to practice in Maryland, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia.

Renée Gentry, Esq.

Ms. Gentry founder of The Law Office of Renée J. Gentry, Esq., is a leading expert on vaccine injury litigation in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) with over 20 years of experience in all phases of cases from entitlement to damages and appeals. She chaired numerous conferences on Vaccine Injury Litigation and has been a featured speaker regarding the NVICP at Judicial Conferences, Vaccine Injury Litigation Boot Camps for New Practitioners, and a Court of Federal Claims Brown Bag Series on the use of experts in the NVICP. Ms. Gentry is a founding member of the Vaccine Injured Petitioners Bar Association, where she served as President for four years, and currently serves as Senior Counsel to the Bar. She is a member of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims Bar Association and previously served on its Board of Governors. She was the 2020 recipient of the Court’s Golden Eagle Award. She is a member of the American Association for Justice and currently serves as Co-Chair of its Vaccine Litigation Group.

In addition to her private practice, Ms. Gentry is the Director of the Vaccine Injury Litigation Clinic at The George Washington University Law School and a Distinguished Professorial Lecturer in Law. In addition to the Clinic, Ms. Gentry previously taught Disability Rights Law and the healthcare component of the Systemic Racism Reading Group. She received her BA from Drake University, and her JD from Washington University Law School.

Sonali Gunawardhana, Esq.

Ms. Gunawardhana has taught multiple courses relating to the regulation of vaccines, including Vaccine Law, at the American University Washington College of Law.

Ms. Gunawardhana currently serves as Assistant General Counsel, Regulatory Law, at Becton Dickinson and Company (BD). In this role, Sonali provides regulatory and legal support to BD’s businesses including both medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Sonali also currently serves as an adjunct professor at American University, Washington College of Law and The Catholic University of America.

Previously, she served as Assistant General Counsel, Regulatory Law at Cardinal Health, Chief Counsel FDA and Regulatory Law, at McKesson Corporation and as outside counsel to a myriad of pharmaceutical and medical device companies while in private practice at Wiley Rein LLP and Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, respectively. Prior to her tenure in private practice, she served as Regulatory Counsel at the FDA for close to ten years. There she assisted on a variety of legal and policy issues in the following Centers: the Center for Devices and Radiological Health; the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research; and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Ms. Gunawardhana received a BA from Syracuse University, a MA from Webster University, an MPH from Boston University, a JD from the University of New Hampshire School of Law and a LLM from Washington College of Law, American University.

Jacob Madden, Esq.

Jacob Madden is a Healthcare and Life Sciences Regulatory Associate at a law firm based in New York. He advises a diverse group of clients, including private equity firms, underwriters, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, biotechnology companies, healthcare providers, veterinary practices, restaurants, and food franchisors and manufacturers in connection with healthcare and FDA regulatory matters, mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets transactions. Jacob is a member of the editorial board of the American Health Law Association’s Journal of Health and Life Sciences Law. Jacob earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was co-Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics, and his B.S., summa cum laude, from the University of Redlands, where he serves on the Board of Trustees. After graduating from law school, Jacob completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Boston University School of Law, focusing his research on the intersection of law and infectious diseases.

Brian Malkin, Esq.

Brian is a seasoned general counsel with extensive experience in product lifecycle for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Intellectual Property (IP), including negotiating and drafting agreements, regulatory affairs strategy and leadership, and risk management. Brian is adept at analyzing procedures and business needs, and leveraging industry knowledge, compliance, and strategic thinking to implement process improvements that enhance efficiency, comply with regulatory requirements and laws, and exceed stakeholder expectations. He has a proven ability to draft and negotiate complex commercial agreements.

Brian has more than 20 years of FDA law and policy experience and IP law experience, including 9 years at the FDA (Office of the Commissioner and the Center for Drug Evaluation) and a number of boutique FDA and IP and international law firms in associate and partner capacities, where his practice focused on innovative and generic/biosimilar pharmaceutical and biologic products, including medical devices and other FDA-regulated products. Most recently, Brian was an Associate General Counsel at Teva Pharmaceuticals, where he supported Research and Development, Regulatory Affairs, Medical Affairs, Compliance & Ethics, Litigation, Commercial, Quality, Government Affairs, ANDA Inc. (medical product distributor), and other client groups.

Brian has also have supported the pharmaceutical and biotechnology community by serving as an adjunct professor at a variety of masters and legal programs in addition to being a frequent speaker at professional conferences and training programs. He is an Executive Committee member (former Chair for 6 years) of the New York State Bar Association’s Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law Section and founding member of the Cannabis Law Section (3 years Co-Chair) and the Steering Committee Member and Public Statement Coordinator (former Co-Chair 6 years) of the Intellectual Property Community (Section) for the DC Bar Association.

Dr. Richard Pan

Dr. Richard Pan is a pediatrician and former UC Davis professor who served in the California State Senate from 2014 to 2022, representing the 6th Senate district, which encompassed parts of Sacramento and Yolo counties. Prior to being elected to the State Senate, he was a member of the California State Assembly representing the 5th Assembly District, and after the 2010 redistricting, the 9th Assembly District. He served as Chair of the Assembly and Senate Committees on Health. Dr .Pan currently serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs.

Following a measles outbreak that began in California and infected 131 people, Dr. Pan and Senator Ben Allen introduced California Senate Bill 277 in 2015, which eliminated non-medical exemptions to vaccine requirements for California school children. In 2019, he authored SB276 to provide public health oversight over medical exemptions to vaccination. TIME magazine called Dr. Pan a “hero” of vaccine history. Dr. Pan is a champion for public health authoring legislation to expand newborn screening, fund gun violence research, increase health care coverage and affordability, reduce sexually transmitted infection and increase state funding for public health. In 2021 he authored a law (SB 742) that makes illegal to “harass, intimidate, injure or obstruct” people who are on their way to get a vaccination. The law was inspired by an incident in January 2021 when protesters targeted and briefly shut down a mass vaccination site in Los Angeles.

Dr. Pan has a Medical Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master of Public Health from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University.

James M. Paul, Esq.

Jim has extensive trial and appellate experience with handling labor and employment law litigation in federal and state courts, and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Department of Labor, Department of Justice, and several other federal and state agencies. He also holds the national Society for Human Resource Management’s “SHRM-SCP” certification, is the Immediate-Past State Director for the Missouri SHRM State Council, and regularly advises employers on all labor and human resource management issues in an effort to prevent or resolve employee issues before they escalate into legal disputes. As Co-Chair of the firm’s Disability Access practice group, Jim advises clients regarding legal requirements for accommodating disabled individuals and defends Americans with Disabilities and Rehabilitation Act lawsuits nationally.

Prior to his private practice of law, Jim served as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Ray Price, Jr. of the Missouri Supreme Court and then as a Missouri Assistant Attorney General. As Assistant Attorney General, he represented the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Missouri Division of Labor Standards, and the Missouri Commission on Human Rights by enforcing state discrimination and wage and hour laws. He also worked in Washington, D.C. on legislative issues for the late Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and has taught Trial Advocacy at Saint Louis University as an Adjunct Professor.

Adebola Popoola, JD, MPH, MBS

Adebola (Bola) Popoola is a policy public health analyst at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In her role at the CDC, Bola leads a team of researchers in policy development and implementation, legal epidemiology research, and policy analysis. Through her work, she has published research papers and products, and presented her work at national conferences.

Bola began her career as a County Epidemiologist at a local health department, where she led investigations and control of communicable diseases and outbreaks occurring in the county. Later transitioning to the private sector as a consultant, she conducted global trend analyses of chronic and infectious diseases.

Bola holds a law degree, dual masters degrees in biomedical science and public health, and dual bachelors degrees in chemistry and biology. She also holds a graduate certificate in global health engagement.

Prof. Ana Santos Rutschman

Ana Santos Rutschman is Professor of Law at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, where she teaches and researches topics related to health law, intellectual property, innovation in the life sciences, and law and technology. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on vaccine law and policy, the regulation of emerging health technologies, and access to medicines.

Professor Rutschman’s work has been recognized by numerous institutions, including the American Society of Law Medicine & Ethics, which named her a Health Law Scholar in 2018 and Bio Intellectual Property Scholar in 2017. In 2018, she was also named a Wiet Life Sciences Law Scholar by the Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy at Loyola University Chicago.

In 2022, the Boston Congress of Public Health selected her as one of the inaugural recipients of a 40 Under 40 Public Health Catalyst Award for her work on vaccine law and policy. Professor Rutschman’s book, Vaccines as Technology: Innovation, Barriers and the Public Health, was published in 2022 by Cambridge University Press. Her legal scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in UCLA Law Review, Emory Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, UC Davis Law Review, Arizona Law Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, Harvard Public Health Review and Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, among several others. Her peer-reviewed work has appeared in Nature Biotechnology, Vaccine, Emerging Infectious Diseases and American Journal of Infection Control, among others. Her commentary pieces have been published by Health Affairs Blog, Bill of Health, Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, the Huffington Post and The Conversation, and republished in Scientific American, Newsweek Japan and numerous U.S. newspapers.

Dr. Chizoba Wonodi

Dr. Wonodi is an epidemiologist, and leader of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Vaccine Access Center’s immunization support efforts in Nigeria. A public health physician with over twenty-seven years’ research and program experience in Africa, Asia and America. She serves as the Nigeria Country Director at the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC). In this role, she leads an important portfolio of work on technical assistance, implementation research and policy advocacy to improve immunization service delivery and primary health care systems in the country. She is currently the principal investigator for a Gates Foundation-funded project to improve immunization uptake by sending SMS messages to inform, educate and remind caregivers of their child’s vaccinations. Implemented as a cluster randomized trial, this intervention – the Immunization Reminder and Information SMS System – is intentionally large in scope to demonstrate how innovations like SMS reminders can be taken to scale.

In keeping with her focus on public health practice, Dr. Wonodi founded the Women Advocates for Vaccine Access (WAVA), a coalition of Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria advocating for increased uptake of vaccines and for sustainable financing of immunization programs. WAVA serves as the secretariat for the national platform, the Expanded Civil Society Initiative for Immunization (ECSII) in Nigeria. At the global level, Dr. Wonodi holds the vice chair position of the Gavi CSO Platform Steering Committee, a body that coordinates Civil Societies active in immunization.

Dr. Jerry Williamson

Dr. Williamson is a Board Certified physician affiliated with the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. A licensed risk manager with over 30 years experience in private practice and healthcare management, Dr. Williamson has served as Medical Director for a third party administrator, Vice President of Medical Affairs for a 280 bed hospital, Assistant Medical Director for a staff model HMO, and a private practice physician. He has served in a senior leadership role with Collier Health Services, a Federally Qualified Health Center in South Florida, including serving as the Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Biomedical Informatics Program.

Dr. Williamson is a frequent lecturer and consultant on health law topics, and is a certified AHIMA trainer for ICD-10, and a consultant with The American Academy of Professional Coders. Dr. Williamson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Florida State University College of Medicine. At the College, he also serves as an affiliate of The Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine and Law. He is an affiliate member of the Health Law Division of the Florida Bar, as well as a certified mediator and formally trained arbitrator listed as a neutral with both the American Arbitration Association and American Health Lawyers.

Dr. Williamson formerly served as a “Meaningful Use Clinician Champion” to The Center for the Advancement of Health Information Technology, a Regional Extension Center in Florida. He is the 2012 recipient of the “Heroes in Healthcare” award from the Naples Daily News for Administrative Excellence in Healthcare. He received his BA from Queens College, his MD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and his MJ from Loyola University Chicago.