Vicky Pebsworth, PhD, RN, is an NVIC board member and volunteer Director of Research and Patient Safety. She has worked with NVIC since 2006 on vaccine safety analytical and education projects.
Dr. Pebsworth has been employed in the health care field for more than 35 years as an ICU nurse, health care administrator, health policy analyst and research scientist primarily focusing on public health policy, pediatrics and patient safety.
Since 2008, she has served as a consumer representative (voting member) of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC). Additionally, in service to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC), she has worked for the Vaccine Safety Working Group (Epidemiology and Implementation Subcommittees) and was the consumer representative to the independent H1N1 Vaccine Safety Risk Assessment Working Group (VSRAWG). She has also been a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Board of Scientific Counselors and reviewed research proposals for the CDC Special Interest Panels and a Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) peer review program administered by the Department of Defense (DoD) and United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC).
In 2009, she provided testimony to the Institute of Medicine’s committee on the Review of National Vaccine Plan Priorities addressing two topics: informed vaccine decision making and enhancing the safety of vaccines and vaccination practices.
Dr. Pebsworth previously worked as a health policy analyst for the U.S. Congress’s Physician Payment Review Commission; for the Michigan Health and Safety Coalition; and for the Michigan State Commission on Patient Safety. Additionally, she was a Research Scientist and Affiliate Faculty member at George Mason University, Health Administration and Policy Department; an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Health Administration Department; and an Associate Professor and Director of the Health Systems Management Program at the University of Detroit, Mercy.
She has successfully competed for research funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the University of Michigan Health Systems Health Services Research Initiative, and the Health Care Financing Administration. Her analyses and papers have been published in the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of the American Medical Association, Advances in Patient Safety: New Directions and Alternative Approaches, Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, and Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America.
She received her doctoral degree from the University of Michigan (1999) — School of Public Health (Health Services Organization and Policy) and School of Nursing (Health Systems Administration). She was a University of Michigan Regent's Fellow and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health systems research.
Her son — her only child — experienced serious, long-term health problems following receipt of seven live virus and killed bacterial vaccines administered during his 15-month well-baby visit which sparked her interest in vaccine safety research and policymaking and chronic illness and disability in children.
