Montrece McNeill Ransom, JD, MPH, PCC, is a nationally recognized public health leader, lawyer, executive coach, and belonging strategist with more than two decades of national leadership experience advancing workforce development, health policy, and law-informed public health practice. She serves as the Executive Director of the Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law at Washington University School of Law, where she leads initiatives at the intersection of law, health systems, and public policy. She previously served as Director of the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training at the National Network of Public Health Institutes, where she led national workforce development initiatives supporting public health agencies across the United States.
Montrece earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Alabama School of Law and her Master of Public Health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She spent nearly two decades at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Public Health Law Program, where she held multiple leadership roles and led national training and workforce development initiatives focused on strengthening the role of law and policy in public health practice. Through this work, she helped design and expand national programs that equipped public health professionals, attorneys, and policymakers with the legal knowledge needed to address complex health challenges and strengthen public health systems.
In addition to her institutional leadership roles, Montrece serves as Public Health Law faculty at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and as faculty at Walden University’s School of Health Sciences. She is a nationally and internationally recognized speaker and scholar on public health law, leadership, and workforce development. Montrece is the former President of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, currently serves as Chair of the National Vaccine Law Association, and is a member of the Board of Directors for Health Career Connection, reflecting her longstanding leadership at the intersection of law, medicine, public health, and workforce development.
Montrece’s leadership and impact have been recognized through numerous professional honors and awards. She is the recipient of the American Public Health Association’s Jennifer Robbins Award for the Practice of Public Health Law and the American Bar Association Health Law Section’s Champion of Diversity and Inclusion Award. She has also been named one of the Top 5 Most Influential Coaches by Entrepreneur Mogul for her work as an ICF Professional Certified Coach and belonging strategist. Montrece is an international keynote speaker and TEDx speaker, and the author or editor of more than 35 scholarly publications, including the textbook Public Health Law: Concepts and Case Studies. Her work centers on developing human-centered systems, strengthening leadership across disciplines, and advancing belonging as a core strategy for public health impact.