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NEWS FROM NORTHEASTERN LAW’S CENTER FOR
HEALTH POLICY AND LAW
| | | Federal Judge Cites Amicus Brief Co-Authored by Professor Wendy Parmet in Vaccine Access Case | | |
A federal judge in Massachusetts has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s actions to alter COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, citing an amicus brief co-authored by Professor Wendy Parmet, faculty co-director of Northeastern Law’s Center for Health Policy and Law. In his January 6 decision in American Academy of Pediatrics et al. v. Kennedy et al., U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy referenced the brief submitted by Defend Public Health (DPH)—the only amicus cited in the order. DPH is an unincorporated nonprofit association with more than 7,000 members across 40 states, including physicians, nurses, academic scientists, legal scholars, and current and former public health officials. The organization advocates for sound public health policies and programs.
>> Read more
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We are grateful that we were able to contribute to this critically important case. We look forward to working with students, public health experts and outside counsel in cases, such as AAP v. Kennedy, that carry significant public health implications.
— WENDY E. PARMET
Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director, Center for Health Policy and Law
| | | CHPL Welcomes Shannon Rempe, Program Director for Advancing Public Health and Equity in the Courts | | |
Shannon Rempe has joined CHPL as program director for the Advancing Public Health and Health Equity in the Courts program. She is an experienced public health attorney dedicated to advancing health equity through public health law and policy, litigation strategy and collaborative advocacy. Across her work, Rempe embeds practices that center health and economic justice, redressing systemic harm and the civil rights of health.
>> Read more
| | Professor Katherine Kraschel Leads Planned Parenthood Clinic Opening in New London | | |
Professor Katherine Kraschel, chair of the board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE), participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new clinic in New London, Connecticut, on January 22. The facility is designed to help address gaps in care created by cuts in federal funding. Kraschel was joined by Governor Ned Lamont and other state officials at the event. An expert on the intersections of reproduction, gender, bioethics and health policy, Kraschel has served on the PPSNE board since 2020 and was appointed chair in 2023.
>> Read more
| | Salus Populi Judicial Program Secures Third W.K. Kellogg Foundation Grant, Bringing Total Support to $900,000 | | |
The Center for Health Policy and Law, in collaboration with Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences’ Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, has been awarded a two-year $600,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) to continue to support and expand upon Salus Populi, the nation’s first education program to train judges and lawyers about the social determinants of health and their relationship to law. To date, the Salus Populi program has trained over 2,100 judges, court personnel and legal professionals. This additional two-year funding builds upon WKKF’s previous awards in 2022 and 2024 totaling $900,000; it will allow Salus Populi to expand the program’s reach, including offering courses specifically for lawyers who appear before courts to enable them to better understand the social determinants of health and its impact on their clients and building out bench cards to serve as a resource on the bench.
>> Learn more
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Alisa Lincoln (standing, far right), faculty co-director for Salus Populi, speaks about how social determinants of health shape legal decision-making during Mills College at Northeastern University’s Community Table Dinner Series in December.
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Upcoming Salus Populi Training
Health Equity: How It Relates to the Courts
February 27, 2026 | Judicial Council of California, San Francisco
The Health Equity: How it Relates to the Courts course offers a deeper look at racism as a social determinant of health. The course will explore the different mechanisms through which racism affects individual and population health, contributes to health inequities, interacts with other social determinants of health, and fosters other forms of structural discrimination to create health inequities. This course will also teach practical steps judges can take to mitigate the judicial system’s adverse impact on health inequities. There is no registration fee. Breakfast and lunch will be served. Travel and lodging will be provided.
>> Learn more
| | Public Health Advocacy Institute Launches Family and Friends of Gamblers | | Mark Gottlieb ’93, left, executive director of PHAI and a founding board member of FFOG, and Richard Daynard, head of FFOG and president of PHAI. | | |
A national movement to elevate the experiences of those whose lives have been upended by gambling disorder is at the heart of Family and Friends of Gamblers (FFOG), a new nonprofit launched by Northeastern Law’s Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) on November 6 in Washington, DC, with Lifting the FOG Day. PHAI created FFOG to address an often-overlooked dimension of the gambling crisis: For every person experiencing a gambling disorder, an estimated eight to ten family members or friends also endure significant harm.
>> Learn more
| | Amy J. Reed Collaborative Petitions FDA on Device Safety | | |
The Amy J. Reed Collaborative for Medical Device Safety (AJRC) has filed two significant petitions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in recent weeks. On February 4, AJRC co-directors David A. Simon and Hooman Noorchashm petitioned the FDA to immediately recall all da Vinci 5 Robotic Surgical Systems due to a serious power failure defect that causes prolonged reboot delays, loss of visualization and control, and potential insufflation loss during surgery. “Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci systems hold a virtual monopoly over the robotic surgery industry, but this unmitigated power loss defect poses a risk of severe injury or death to unsuspecting patients,” said Noorchashm, an internationally recognized medical device safety expert.
>> Learn more
The collaborative also filed a January 27 petition requesting the FDA create a public database containing all labels, labeling and instructions for use of FDA-regulated medical devices—similar to the existing Drugs@FDA database for pharmaceutical products. The petition builds on arguments Simon and Noorchashm outlined in their recent JAMA article advocating for greater medical device transparency.
>> Learn more
| | REGISTRATION IS NOW LIVE FOR CHPL’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE! | | |
April 3, 2026
ANNUAL HEALTH LAW CONFERENCE
Navigating the New Health Law Landscape
The Center for Health Policy and Law’s 2026 conference will feature a keynote address by Rachel Pearson, MD, PhD, a pediatrics resident and author of No Apparent Distress: A Doctor’s Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine.
>> Learn more
PLENARY SESSION: PAPER PRESENTATIONS
PANELS
- Medicare, Medicaid and the Future of Public Insurance
- Professionalism and the Healthcare Workforce in the Era of AI
- State Innovations in this New Landscape
- The New Environmental Health Landscape
- The New Vaccine Landscape
- The Regulatory Environment and the FDA
SPEAKERS INCLUDE
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Samuel Bagenstos
Michigan Law
Erin Fuse Brown
Brown University School of Public Health
Tim Callahan
Boston University School of Law
John Cogan
UConn School of Law
Andrew Cohen
Health Law Advocates
Nathan Cortez
SMU Dedman School of Law
Marianne Engelman-Lado
NYU Law
Leslie Francis
The University of Utah
Alexander Hamilton
GW Law
Claudia E. Haupt*
Northeastern University School of Law
Mifrah Hayath
Harvard University
Nicole Huberfeld
Boston University School of Law
Jennifer Lea Huer*
Northeastern University School of Law
Sarah Gerke
University of Illinois College of Law
Sapna Khatri
Boston University School of Law
Kristin Madison*
Northeastern University School of Law
Rachel Morello-Frosch
Harvard Radcliffe Institute
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Sharmila Murthy*
Northeastern University School of Law
Sophia Palmieri
The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School
Wendy E. Parmet*
Northeastern University School of Law
Dorit Reiss
UC Law San Francisco
Barak D. Richman
GW Law
Laura S. Richman
GW Law
Elle Rothermich
Yale Law School
Ana Rutschman
Vilanova Law
Rachel Sachs
WashU Law
David Simon*
Northeastern University School of Law
Michael Sinha
Saint Louis University School of Law
Christine Stoneman
Northeastern University School of Law
Sarah L. Swan
Rutgers Law School
Jalonne White Newsome
University of Michigan
School for Environment and Sustainability
*Moderator
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April 24, 2026
PUBLIC HEALTH ADVOCACY INSTITUTE (PHAI) CONFERENCE
Online Gambling and Public Health: An International Movement
Join Northeastern Law’s Public Health Advocacy Institute for a day of research presentations and policy discussion featuring leading scholars, policymakers and advocates in the gambling research field. The conference will highlight the comprehensive public health approach to the prevention of gambling harm, with policy discussions including international experts and state and federal legislators.
>> Learn more
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HEALTH LAW ROUNDTABLES
January 22, 2026
“Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Health Care Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare”
Tiffany Joseph, Associate Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Northeastern University College of Social Sciences and Humanities
February 24, 2026
“Genetic Continuity: Beyond Procreation and Parenthood”
Shelly Simana, Assistant Professor of Law, Boston College Law School
March 18, 2026
“Keeping Afloat: Using the Law to Maximize the Public Health Benefits of Floating Infrastructure”
Leo Beletsky, Professor of Law and Health Sciences; Faculty Director, The Action Lab at the Center for Health Policy and Law, Northeastern University School of Law
March 25, 2026
“Device Dysfunction”
David Simon, Associate Professor of Law; Co-Director, Amy J. Reed Medical Device Safety Collaborative, Northeastern University School of Law
April 7, 2026
“The Charitable Costs of Debt”
Elizabeth King, Associate Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
April 15, 2026
“Reconceiving IVF”
Katherine Kraschel, Assistant Professor of Law and Health Sciences, Northeastern University School of Law
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| *Check our website regularly as we build our programming. | | We Make News, We Comment on News | | |
“We don't quite really know whether shared clinical decision-making will be considered as sufficient enough of a recommendation to provide the liability protection. And if it doesn't do that, then there are real concerns about whether manufacturers will continue to make vaccines.”
— WENDY E. PARMET
“Critics Say 'Talk to Your Doc' Requirement For Some Vaccines Causes Confusion”
NPR’s All Things Considered, January 15, 2026
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“The [Chiles v. Salazar] case is ultimately about the role of experts and professional advice that communicates expertise. This has the potential to unsettle a huge range of professional regulations more generally.”
— CLAUDIA E. HAUPT
“Supreme Court Questions State Bans on Conversion Therapy”
The Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2025
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Check out our faculty’s comments in the media, op-eds and more.
>> Recent Press
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ABOUT THE CENTER FOR HEALTHY POLICY AND LAW
Based in Northeastern University School of Law, the Center for Health Policy and Law draws from participating departments across Northeastern University to provide a rich context for students and researchers interested in public health law, health and human rights, health governance, intellectual property, bioethics, healthcare delivery law and the regulation of our healthcare system. It is guided by faculty and staff with diverse areas of expertise and is affiliated with an array of university-wide institutes, programs and experiential learning opportunities.
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Wendy E. Parmet
Faculty C0-Director
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Claudia E. Haupt
Faculty Co- Director
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Mehreen Butt
Managing Director
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