Patricia J. Zettler, B.A., J.D.

Education

• BA, Stanford University
• JD, Stanford University

Biography

Patricia J. Zettler is a nationally-recognized expert on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and food and drug law. She serves as the John W. Bricker Professor of Law, as Acting Academic Director of the Drug Enforcement & Policy Center at Moritz College of Law (spring 2025), and as a member of the Cancer Control Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Professor Zettler teaches courses related to administrative law, tort law, FDA law, and public health. 

Professor Zettler is a prolific scholar with over 60 articles in scientific journals and traditional law reviews, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Indiana Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, and NYU Law Review. Her work has covered various topics including stem cell interventions, opioids, cannabis products, tobacco and nicotine products, COVID-19 countermeasures, non-trial access to investigational drugs, and citizen science. She also is a co-author of the 5th edition of Food and Drug Law: Cases and Materials. Zettler’s research has won multiple prizes, including the 2023 Early Career Distinguished Scholar Award at The Ohio State University and the 2015 Health Law Scholar Award from the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics.

From November 2023 to January 2025, Professor Zettler was on leave from the University while she served as Deputy General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), covering the FDA portfolio. In that role, she helped to advance and implement key FDA regulations and policies, worked with the Department of Justice on litigation involving FDA, and advised HHS, FDA, and others across the federal government on a wide range of issues. Before her academic career, Professor Zettler served as an associate chief counsel in FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel. She also has held academic appointments at Stanford Law School and Georgia State University College of Law.

Additionally, Professor Zettler has served on the Food and Drug Law Institute’s (FDLI) Board of Directors, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) Health Sciences Policy Board, and the Ohio State Bar Association’s Administrative Agency Law Specialty Board. She also has chaired the International Society of Cell & Gene Therapy’s Committee on the Ethics of Cell and Gene Therapy, and its subcommittee on expanded access to investigational cell and gene interventions.