Membership

On this page:

• Who can be a voting member?
• How long do voting members serve?
• Rules you need to follow as a voting member
• How to nominate yourself or someone else
• Time between when you submit and when we appoint you
• Members

The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) appoints up to nine voting members. There are also four ex officio members from other HHS agencies, who do not vote. 

Who can be a voting member?

These include:

• Three health professionals
  • Must be experts in:
    • Children’s health care
    • Causes of childhood diseases, how and why they occur, and how to prevent them
    • Undesirable side effects vaccines may cause
  • Two of the three must be pediatricians.
• Three members of the public
  • At least two must be parents or guardians of a child who have suffered a vaccine-related injury or death
    • The vaccine must be one the VICP covers. 
    • A court must have decided that a VICP covered vaccine caused, or was presumed to have caused, the child's injury or death.
    • The Secretary will consider an obstetrician as the third member.
• Three lawyers
  • One must have experience representing people who had a vaccine-related injury or death.
  • One must have experience representing vaccines manufacturers.

How long do voting members serve?

Three years

Rules you need to follow as a voting member

You must follow federal ethics rules. This includes criminal conflict of interest laws. These laws also apply to federal government employees. 

Example

You or your spouse owns stock valued above a certain amount in companies that make the hepatitis B vaccine. This prevents you from discussing changes to the vaccine injury table or vaccine information statements for that vaccine.

Reveal your finances

We’ll need to assess possible conflicts of interest.

You’ll need to fill out a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report (PDF - 1 MB). It collects information about your financial interests, consulting relationships, research grants, or contracts that ACCV recommendations may affect.

How to nominate yourself or someone else

We post in the Federal Register. Read the request for nominations

What materials to submit

For each person you nominate, include:

• Letter with their:
  • Name
  • Affiliation
  • Contact information
  • Field(s) of expertise
  • Reason you're nominating them (how they’ll benefit the ACCV)
    • Traits
    • Perspectives
    • Skills
• A copy of curriculum vitae or resume
• Your name, mailing address, daytime telephone number, and email 

Where to send your package

Director, Division of Injury Compensation Programs
Health Systems Bureau
Health Resources and Services Administration 
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 8W-25A 
Rockville, MD 20857

Time between when you submit and when we appoint you

It varies. It may be 12 to 14 months.

Members

Chair and designated federal officer, ACCV

CAPT Reed Grimes, M.D. 
Division of Injury Compensation Programs, HRSA, HHS

Voting members

Ex officio members

Office of General Counsel

Lauren Nussbaum, J.D. 
Attorney