Vicky Pebsworth, OP, 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 educational projects.
Dr. Pebsworth has been employed in the healthcare field for more than 45 years. She was an ICU nurse, healthcare administrator, health policy analyst, and research scientist with a primary focus on public health policy, pediatrics, and patient safety. 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 Regents Fellow and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health systems research.
In 2025, she was appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to a four year term on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Between 2007 and 2012, she was the voting consumer member of the Food and Drug Administration's Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) with periodic requests to attend meetings as the consumer member through 2016.
From 2009 to 2012, she was a consultant to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) serving on the Vaccine Safety Working Group (Epidemiology and Implementation Subcommittees) and was the consumer representative to the DHHS independent H1N1 Vaccine Safety Risk Assessment Working Group (VSRAWG). She provided testimony to the Institute of Medicine's committee on the Review of National Vaccine Plan Priorities in 2009, addressing two topics: informed vaccine decision-making and enhancing the safety of vaccines and vaccination practices.
Dr. Pebsworth has been a consultant to the CDC’s Board of Scientific Counselors and has reviewed research proposals for the CDC’s Special Interest Panels and a peer reviewed Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) administered by the Department of Defense (DoD) and United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). She previously worked as a health policy analyst for the U.S. Congress's Physician Payment Review Commission, the Michigan Health and Safety Coalition, and the Michigan State Commission on Patient Safety. She was a Research Scientist and Affiliate Faculty member in the Health Administration and Policy Department at George Mason University; an Assistant Professor in the Health Administration Department at the University of Michigan; and an Associate Professor and Director of the Health Systems Management Program at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Dr. Pebsworth 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 Journal of the American Medical Association; American Journal of Public Health; 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.
In 2024, she earned a certificate in bioethics (with distinction) from the National Catholic Bioethics Center. She is the Director of the Pacific Region 9 and an ethics committee member for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, and a life-professed Lay Dominican. She is a Faith Community Nurse and lead instructor for her Diocese.
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, bioethics, and chronic illness and disability in children.
