Law and Policy Analyst
Marcelo H. Fernández-Viña is a Law and Policy Analyst with the Policy Surveillance Program at the Center for Public Health Law Research. Marcelo is driven by his commitment to improve public health, health policy, and health law. Marcelo began his public health career while completing his MPH, where he focused his master’s project on assessing the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s (PDPH) response to the CDC’s Program Collaboration and Service Integration initiative which focused on improving disease prevention and surveillance initiatives and improving access to health services for HIV/AIDS, STD, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis. After completing his MPH, Marcelo was hired by PDPH as the Adult Viral Hepatitis Prevention Coordinator, where he served until he became the Program Manager for the PDPH Office of Program Collaboration and Service Integration. Marcelo participated in a number of cross-program initiatives including the City’s condom distribution campaign and HPV vaccination campaign. Marcelo also collaborated with his colleagues to write, win, and implement several infectious disease prevention and surveillance grants. Marcelo’s experience in public health program management lead him to pursue a law degree in order to better understand and address legal and policy barriers to public health program implementation. While in law school Marcelo worked as a research assistant, teaching assistant, legal research fellow, and pro bono legal intern, and as a contributor to and blog coordinator for the Philadelphia Inquirer Health Cents Blog.
Marcelo received his B.S. in Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2007. Marcelo received his MPH with a concentration in Health Management and Policy from the Drexel University School of Public Health in 2009. Marcelo received his JD with a concentration in Health Law from the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law in 2016, where he was awarded Outstanding Achievement in the Health Law Concentration for best overall performance in the Health Law Concentration, and Best Student Performance awards in Health Law I, Health Law II, and the Health Policy Colloquium. Marcelo completed a Postgraduate Course in Health Law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires in 2017.