Education

• United States Military Academy BS
• University of Oxford MBA
• Georgetown University JD

Biography

Professor Oliva’s research and teaching interests include health law and policy, privacy law, evidence, torts, and complex litigation. Her scholarship has been published by or is forthcoming in, among other publications, the Virginia Law Review, California Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, UCLA Law Review, and online companions to the Yale Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review and New York University Law Review. Professor Oliva is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI).

Professor Oliva is a United States Army veteran who serves as a Research Scholar at Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law and a Senior Scholar with the UCSF/UC Law Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy. She also serves on the Johns Hopkins University/UCSF Opioid Industry Documents Archive (OIDA) National Advisory Committee and the National Pain Advocacy Center’s Science & Policy Advisory Council. Professor Oliva is an honors graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Public Interest Law Scholar and Executive Notes & Comments Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.

Prior to attending law school, Professor Oliva earned her masters degree from the University of Oxford and undergraduate degree from the United States Military Academy. While a cadet at West Point, she was selected for the Rhodes and Truman Scholarships. After law school, Professor Oliva served as a federal appellate law clerk to the Honorable Stephanie K. Seymour on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Professor Oliva has earned numerous awards for her scholarship, teaching, and service. She was selected as a 2019 Wiet Life Science Law Scholar by the Loyola University Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy and a 2020 Health Law Scholar by the Saint Louis University Center for Health Law Studies and the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. Professor Oliva was the recipient of the 2021 Health Law Community Service Award from the AALS Section on Law, Medicine, and Health Care and the Harry S. Truman Foundation honored her with the 2019 Truman Scholarship Foundation Ike Skelton Award for her commitment to public service. In 2024, Professor Oliva earned the Indiana University Maurer School of Law Trustees Teaching Award and Indiana University Maurer School of Law BLSA Outstanding Interactive Professor Award.

Prior to joining the IU Maurer Law faculty, Professor Oliva served as Professor of Law and Co-Director of the UCSF/UC Law Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco.  She has also served as Associate Dean for Faculty Research & Development and Director of the Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law at Seton Hall University School of Law where she was selected as the law school’s 2021 Professor of the Year (Paula Franzese Excellence in Teaching Award) and 2022 Faculty Researcher of the Year. Professor Oliva served as the 2020 Chair of the AALS Section on Law and Mental Disability and 2023 Chair of the AALS Section on Law, Medicine, and Health Care. She currently serves as Chair-Elect of the AALS Section on Biolaw.

In the Media

• Mentioned in "Fragile Gains, Persistent Setbacks: The Muddled Arc of American Drug-Law Reform," Yale Law Journal (3/28/2025)
• Wrote "Decriminalizing Cannabis," Yale Law Journal (3/28/2025)
• Quoted in "Healthcare AI newswatch: Payer AI regulation please, pharmacy AI, nurses v. AI redux," AI in Healthcare (3/19/2025)
• Mentioned in "Algorithms Deny Humans Health Care," The Regulatory Review (3/18/2025)
• Quoted in "Weed is in a gray legal area in Indiana. Where does that leave local smoke shops?," Indiana Daily Student (2/13/2025)
• Mentioned in "Recap: Week in Review," The Regulatory Review (12/20/2024)
• Mentioned in "Health Law Colloquium Speaker Announced," St. Louis Record (10/14/2024)
• Selected in "Members Elected October 2024," American Law Institute (10/5/2024)
• Quoted in "DEA proposing to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug," Fox 59 News (4/30/2024)
• Quoted in "Hogsett exploring abortion access options for city-county employees," Indiana Busines Journal (8/25/2023)
• Quoted in "Why Is It Still So Hard to Get ADHD Medication?," Mother Jones (7/15/2023)
• Quoted in "Abortion Litigation To Watch As Dobbs Decision Turns 1," Law 360 (6/22/2023)

Selected works

Related links

• Social Science Research Network
• Publications

Areas of expertise

• Evidence
• Health law
• Torts