About the Program:

Through an astonishingly successful collaboration between private industry and government, for nearly a year we have had several safe and effective vaccines that provide significant protection against severe illness or death from covid-19 for those who receive the jab. Yet because of vaccine hesitancy, the virus continues to spread, hospitalizing and killing thousands and preventing a return to normalcy in communities throughout the country. At this stage, the single most compelling public health policy question is how to make everyday human interactions safe while millions continue to reject or avoid inoculation. One obvious answer, of course, is vaccine mandates.

Speakers:

Professor Debbie Kaminer, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College

Debbie Kaminer is a Professor in the Department of Law at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College (CUNY). She received her B.A., cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.

Professor Kaminer’s scholarship focuses on vaccination law, employment discrimination, and religion and the law. Her scholarship has appeared in numerous law journals including American University Law Review, Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law, New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law, and Wisconsin Law Review Forward. She has published opinion pieces in outlets including USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg Law, New York Law Journal, Houston Chronicle, The Conversation, New York Daily News, NJ Star-Ledger and The Jerusalem Post.

Professor Kaminer has provided subject matter expert commentary for publications including The New York Times, NBC News, Businessweek, Bloomberg Law, Healthline, MarketWatch, Fox News, JAMA Ethics, Financial Times, and Vice. She has been invited to participate in numerous panels on the Covid-19 vaccine and was a guest expert on JAMA Ethics EthicsTalk Videocast and on NPR.

Professor Kaminer was named the 2021 Charles M. Hewitt Master Teacher by the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB), the international organization of law professors who teach in business schools. She twice won the Zicklin School of Business Teaching Excellence Award. She regularly teaches graduate and undergraduate law courses on Employment Law, Contracts, The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business and Business Organizations.

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss’, Professor of Law at University of California, Hastings College of the Law

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss is a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law who specializes in vaccines law and policy, including exemption laws and tort liability related to non-vaccination. She published law review articles, peer reviewed articles and blog posts on legal issues related to vaccines. 
 
She received an undergraduate degree in Law and Political Science (1999, Magna cum Laude) from the Faculty of Law in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received her Ph.D. from the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program in UC Berkeley. 

She is a member of the Parents Advisory Board of Voices for Vaccines and the the Vaccine Working Group on Ethics and Policy, and active in vaccine advocacy in other ways.

James A. Sonne, Professor of Law and Director of Religious Liberty Clinic, Stanford Law School at Stanford University

Jim Sonne is a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founding director of its Religious Liberty Clinic, the leading and only full-time academic program in the country where students can learn the practice and profession of law through supervised litigation in that field. He is an experienced and award-winning teacher, practitioner, and scholar, with particular expertise in law and religion issues.

Professor Sonne earned his BA with honors from Duke University and his JD with honors from Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk to Judge Edith Brown Clement of ­­the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Sonne also previously served as an associate professor of law at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan; as an appellate lawyer at Horvitz & Levy in Los Angeles; and as a labor and employment lawyer at McGuireWoods in Richmond, Virginia. He has also served as a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School.

Professor Sonne has published full-length articles in the Clinical Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, and Georgia Law Review, among others, as well as shorter pieces in the Harvard Law Review, Oxford Journal of Church and State, and New England Journal of Medicine. His work has also been featured by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Law Journal, and California Lawyer.

Registration

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