Stacey Ann Tovino

B.A., Magna cum laude, Tulane University, 1994

J.D., Magna cum laude, University of Houston Law Center, 1997

Ph.D., with Distinction, The University of Texas Medical Branch, 2006

• Health Law
• Privacy Law
• Tort Law

About

Stacey Tovino, JD, PhD, serves as the John B. Turner LLM Program Chair in Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. An elected member of the American Law Institute and an invited fellow of the American Bar Foundation, Professor Tovino's current research focuses on patient privacy and health information confidentiality, mental health law, substance use disorders and the law, and virus and vaccine law. Professor Tovino publishes her interdisciplinary research in textbooks, casebooks, encyclopedias, law reviews, medical and science journals, and ethics and humanities journals. Her recent scholarship has placed in Fordham Law Review (forthcoming 2024), Boston College Law Review (2024), Emory Law Journal (2023), William and Mary Law Review (2023), Cardozo Law Review (2023), Duke Law Journal (2022), Alabama Law Review (2020), Notre Dame Law Review (2019), Iowa Law Review (2019), Alabama Law Review (2018), Washington and Lee Law Review (2017), Minnesota Law Review (2016), Boston College Law Review (2016), and Washington Law Review (2016). An enthusiastic teacher, Professor Tovino earned law school-wide teaching awards in 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2020, as well as an OU College of Law Institutional Impact Award in 2021.

Within the legal academy, Professor Tovino has served as Chair of the AALS Section on Law and Mental Disability (2024 and 2009), Chair of the AALS Section on Biolaw (2024), Chair-Elect of the AALS Section on Law Professors with Disabilities and Allies (2024), Chair of the AALS Section on Law and the Humanities (2023), Chair of the AALS Section on Law, Medicine, and Health Care (2022), Chair of the AALS Section on Torts and Compensation Systems (2018), and Chair of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) Mentor Committee (2023-2025). Professor Tovino also recently completed two-year terms on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Teaching Methods (2020-2022) and on the Planning Committee of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (2018-2020). 

Professor Tovino is a frequent speaker on the local, national, and international level. She has been invited to guest lecture and present papers on a range of health law, bioethics, and medical humanities topics at schools of law, medicine, nursing, public health, pharmacy, life sciences, health sciences, and public policy, as well as undergraduate and graduate departments of neuroscience, biology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and humanities around the world. 

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, Professor Tovino served for a decade as the Judge Jack and Lulu Lehman Professor of Law and the Founding Director of the Health Law Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) William S. Boyd School of Law. In 2019, Professor Tovino received UNLV's Top Tier Award, an honor bestowed on faculty members who demonstrate excellence in all five areas of UNLV’s Top Tier Mission including research and external funding, teaching excellence and student achievement, academic health center growth, infrastructure and shared governance, and community partnerships. Professor Tovino has also served as Founding Director of the Health Law and Policy Center and Associate Professor of Law at Drake University Law School (2008-2010); Assistant Professor of Law at Hamline University School of Law (2006-2008); Visiting Assistant Professor, Research Professor, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston Law Center (2003-2006); and attorney in the Health Industries Group of the Houston office of the international law firm Vinson & Elkins (1997-2003). During her practice, Professor Tovino represented physicians, scientists, allied health professionals, general and special hospitals, academic medical centers, organ procurement organizations, blood banks, and nonprofit health care organizations in civil, regulatory, operational, and transactional matters.