Patti Zettler is the John W. Bricker Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and a faculty member of Ohio State’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center and its Comprehensive Cancer Center. From November 2023 to January 2025, Professor Zettler was on leave from Ohio State to serve as Deputy General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 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.
In her academic work, 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, Science, NYU Law Review,and Boston University Law Review. She also co-authors a leading FDA law casebook, Food and Drug Law: Cases and Materials. She has been actively engaged in professional service, including having served as a member of the Food and Drug Law Institute’s (FDLI) Board of Directors, a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) Board on Health Sciences Policy, and as chair of the International Society of Cell & Gene Therapy’s (ISCT) Committee on the Ethics of Cell and Gene Therapy and its subcommittee on expanded access.
Before entering academics, Professor Zettler served as an Associate Chief Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel at FDA. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University, both with distinction.