Patricia Skuster, JD, MPP

Patty Skuster’s research has focused on abortion law globally and how law operates to affect public health. She currently serves as Associate Director of Accreditation and Core MPH teaching faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s Master’s in Public Health Program, where she teaches courses on reproductive rights, public health law and use/misuse of evidence in public health policy. She also leads a research project with the World Health Organization related to abortion policy implementation and consults with non-governmental organizations on abortion legal issues. Patty came to the Penn MPH Program from Temple Beasley School of Law where she was a visiting law professor and contributed to legal epidemiology projects at Temple’s Center for Public Health Law Research. She has published dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals, laws reviews, and popular media on self-managed abortion, abortion criminalization, abortion legal research, and US foreign policy. Patty spent the bulk of her career with Ipas, a global reproductive rights organization, where she trained and advised governments, UN Agencies, and UN and African human rights authorities. She has a JD and MPP from the University of Michigan.