Susan Crockin, J.D. has been deeply involved in the evolving legal, ethical and policy dimensions of the ARTs since 1988, when she opened one of the first legal practices in the country devoted to ART and adoption family building and was part of the successful effort to pass mandated infertility coverage in Massachusetts that year.  She has worked in the space devoted to the frequently intertwined legal, policy and ethical aspects of the ARTs continuously since then.

Susan developed an enduring professional and personal relationship with Drs. Howard and Georgeanna Jones beginning in the late 1980’s. Susan and Dr. Howard Jones collaborated on a number of inter-disciplinary efforts and publications, including a two-day taped interview in 2015 reflecting on his views and career impact on the legal and ethical aspects of the ARTs which formed the genesis for Jones Rounds.

Susan currently teaches ART Law courses she developed at Georgetown University Law Center where she is an adjunct professor and senior scholar at its O’Neill Center for National & Global Health Law and a faculty affiliate at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics. She has authored or co-authored numerous scholarly articles, a regular column “Legally Speaking,” and three books, including with Dr. Howard Jones the textbook “Legal Conceptions: the evolving law and policy of assisted reproductive technologies” (Johns Hopkins Press 2010).  She is a frequent national lecturer on the legal, ethical and policy aspects of the ARTs, maintains her private legal and consulting practice focused on ART Law, and a current member of the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.  Susan received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and her B.A. summa cum laude from Tufts University.

Laura Bishop, Ph.D. is Associate Teaching Professor and Academic Program Director at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics (KIE). Her research interests include teaching ethics and curriculum development, the role of the family in medical decision making, bioethics education in secondary schools, bioethics themes in movies, and dental ethics.  At Georgetown, she focuses on bioethics curricular and extra-curricular initiatives for undergraduates and the campus community, is the founder and Head of the Undergraduate Bioethics Showcase, develops academic content for the KIE’s annual Conversations in Bioethics, is the program administrator for the KIE’s visiting international research scholars program, and fosters collaborative opportunities for bioethics education with professional groups and organizations.

Dr. Bishop received her PhD from Georgetown in philosophy, with a concentration in bioethics. She received her undergraduate degree from Wells College where she majored in biology and minored in science and human values.

Katie Gottschalk, J.D., L.L.M., is the Executive Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Her work focuses on the intersection of health and regulatory frameworks; from regulating emerging technologies to global frameworks for surrogacy and comparative analysis of vaccine legislation and regulation; and investigates how to create enabling environments for improving health across populations.

Before joining the O’Neill Institute, Katie was the Executive Director of the Center for Global Health, the Acting Director at the Dianne Abbey Law Center for Children and Families in New York, and managed health and policy programs for multiple organizations including MergerWatch, Physicians for Reproductive Choice & Health, and New York Law School.

Katie holds a Master of Laws in Global Health Law from Georgetown University, a J.D. from New York Law School, and a B.A. in Architecture from the University of Colorado.

Consultants:

Amy Altman, J.D. is in private practice with a focus on Third-Party ART Law in Boston, Massachusetts.  She is presently “of counsel” to the Crockin Law & Policy Group, PLLC, and has collaborated with Susan Crockin as an associate or “of counsel” since 1991. She received her JD from Boston University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Tufts University.

Andrea Braverman, Ph.D. is a Clinical Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Braverman is the Associate Director for the Educational Core for OB/Gyn. She is a health psychologist with a specialty in medical health management and infertility counseling. Dr. Braverman has served on the ASRM’s Ethics Committee, chaired its MHPG committee, and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and lectured internationally on infertility and mental health. Dr. Braverman received her M.A., M.S. and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She received the Timothy Jeffries Memorial award in 2011 for outstanding contributions as a health psychologist from the American Psychological Association.

Ruth Lathi, M.D. is the Program Director of the REI Fellowship at Stanford University, where she has been on the faculty since 2003; she is also currently a Professor in Stanford’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the Multi-specialty Recurrent Pregnancy Loss program. Dr. Lathi has a special interest in treating recurrent pregnancy loss, the role of preimplantation genetic diagnosis in the treatment of reproductive disorders, and the prognostic value and utility of genetic testing of miscarriage tissues, and long-term outcomes of fertility treatments. Dr. Lathi graduated from MIT with a B.S. in Molecular Biology, earned her M.D. degree at University of California, San Francisco, and completed her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine. She completed her REI fellowship training in at Stanford University.

Robert J. Stillman, M.D., former medical director of Shady Grove Fertility and clinical professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist with diverse knowledge and more than 40 years of experience in teaching and treating reproductive disorders and infertility. A longtime member and former member of the Board of Directors, of ASRM, Maryland board member of RESOLVE, and former professor and director of the reproductive endocrinology and fertility and in vitro fertilization programs at The George Washington University, as well as a faculty member at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Stillman has held a career long interest in the inter-disciplinary aspects of IVF and the ARTs, and has published widely in the field; he has also been a regular guest lecturer at Georgetown Law Center’s “Assisted Reproductive Technology and the Law,” taught by Susan Crockin, J.D., lending medical and scientific insights to JD and LLM students in these ever-changing fields of law, medicine and ethics. An honor Dr Stillman cherishes is having co-authored with his mentor, Dr. Howard Jones, on promoting the safety of elective single embryo transfers in IVF (one of Dr. Jones’ last professional articles in 2013 (*), a shared and long advocated for goal which has since become standard of care. Dr. Stillman earned his medical degree at Georgetown University, completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University, and a 2-year fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Harvard University.

Thomas L. Toth, M.D. is double board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology/Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.  Currently practicing at Boston IVF and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Toth was the founding director of the Massachusetts General Hospital IVF Unit and Fellowship Training Program in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He is the recipient of numerous recognitions and teaching awards. He has a special interest in egg freezing/fertility preservation and worked closely with Drs. Howard and Georgeanna Jones on pioneering work on the use of natural sugars in egg freezing that has become standard of care worldwide. Dr. Toth earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine accelerated/combined BA/MD program; received his Residency training in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at the Brigham and Women’s/Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; and obtained his Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine.