Shelly Weizman is the associate director of the Center on Addiction and Public Policy at the O’Neill Institute and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law, where she introduced and teaches a course on addiction and mental health law and policy. She is a human rights lawyer whose areas of interest include advancing public policy related to addiction, mental health, and disabilities. At O’Neill, she works on a project portfolio focused on the overdose epidemic and how the law can promote access to treatment and support recovery.
In addition to her work at the institute, Weizman serves on the board of directors of Faces and Voices of Recovery and on the leadership team that developed a new Master of Science in Addiction Policy and Practice at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She also facilitates the Recovery Policy Collaborative, a network of experts in health, human rights, and policy who have lived experience with addiction.
Before coming to Georgetown, Weizman served as the assistant secretary for mental hygiene in the Office of the Governor of New York, where she oversaw policy and operations related to addiction, mental health, and disabilities. She began her legal career as a civil rights attorney at MFY Legal Services, a not-for-profit legal services organization in New York City.
She holds a J.D. with a concentration in health law and policy from Seton Hall University School of Law.
