Robin Koval

Robin Koval is CEO and President of Truth Initiative®, the national public health organization dedicated to achieving a culture where all young people reject smoking, vaping, and nicotine. An acclaimed leader in the advertising and marketing world, and New York Times best-selling author, Koval joined Truth Initiative in 2013. She’s led the successful re-launch of the award-winning and lifesaving truth® youth tobacco prevention campaign and expanded the organization’s world-class research, public education, youth activism, and digital cessation programs to also combat the youth e-cigarette epidemic.

Ruth Malone

Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD is Professor Emerita of Nursing and Health Policy, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, USA. She is internationally known for her research and analysis on the policy dynamics of tobacco control and has published widely on the tobacco endgame. Since she first used the term “endgame” to characterize new supply-side proposals in a 2010 editorial, the idea that an endgame for the tobacco epidemic is possible has gained global traction. Professor Malone currently leads two projects focused on the tobacco endgame: the upEND Tobacco California statewide endgame project, funded by the California Tobacco Control Program, and a national project exploring state retailing of tobacco, funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, NIH. Since 2009 she has served as Editor-in-Chief of the leading international policy journal in the field, Tobacco Control, published by BMJ Journals.

Janet Hoek

Dr. Janet Hoek is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington in New Zealand. She is the co-director of ASPIRE 2025, a University of Otago Research Centre whose members undertake research supporting New Zealand’s smokefree 2025 goal. Her research examines how policy measures could more effectively reduce the appeal, availability, and accessibility of tobacco products. Her work informed legislation on plain and on-pack tobacco warnings within New Zealand and internationally, is currently examining users’ experiences of tobacco products, and has undertaken several studies into the use of e-cigarettes.

Eric Lindblom

Eric Lindblom is an independent consultant on legal and policy matters relating to the regulation of tobacco products and a Senior Scholar at Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, where he previously served as Director for Tobacco Control and Food & Drug Law. Besides serving as a consultant to researchers and research grants, Mr. Lindblom also serves as an expert witness in litigation against tobacco companies. Before joining the O’Neill Institute, Mr. Lindblom was Director of the Office of Policy at the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and a member of CTP’s leadership team from 2011 to 2014. Prior to that, Mr. Lindblom served as General Counsel and Director for Policy Research at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and previously held positions with the federal government, a member of Congress, political campaigns, a law firm, and nonprofit advocacy organizations. Mr. Lindblom has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from Yale.

Chris Bostic

Chris Bostic is the Policy Director at Action on Smoking and Health. Since 2001, Chris has worked in tobacco policy at the local, state, national and international levels. Prior to joining ASH, he worked at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Lung Association. He has also served as a public health law clinical instructor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and was a founding board member of the Human Rights and Tobacco Control Network (HRTCN). In his current position, Chris oversees the development and implementation of ASH’s programs with a particular focus on tobacco endgame and tobacco industry monitoring. He chairs the U.S. and global steering committees for Project Sunset, an effort to phase out the sale of commercial tobacco products. Chris holds a juris doctorate from the Washington College of Law, and a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Mark Gottlieb

Mark Gottlieb is the executive director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, where he also teaches public health advocacy. His work has focused on researching tobacco litigation as a public health strategy, reducing the harm caused by secondhand tobacco smoke through a variety of legal and policy approaches, fostering scholarship using tobacco industry documents, and examining legal and policy approaches to address food marketing to children. Mark practices law with the Institute’s Center for Public Health Litigation, a non-profit firm litigating cases with public health impact.

Natasha Phelps

Natasha Phelps is the Director of Equity-Centered Policy at The Center for Black Health and Equity, where she directs the organization’s work on equity-centered law and policy on a local, state, and federal level. A civil litigator turned public interest attorney, Natasha has long specialized in public health and equitable policy, a history she brings to an organization focused on health disparities among African Americans.

Stacey Gagosian

Stacey Younger Gagosian has worked in politics and policy for more than 20 years. As the Vice President of Public Policy at Truth Initiative, she develops and promotes policies to prevent youth from using tobacco and to help tobacco users quit. As part of her work, she has published several articles focusing on flavored tobacco products.