About

Wendy E. Wagner is the Richard Dale Endowed Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. Her research focuses on the use of science by environmental policy-makers, administrative processes governing the bureaucratic state, the regulation of toxic substances, and the intersection of law and science. She is a leading authority in these areas, having authored three books and over sixty articles and book chapters on topics ranging from corporate accountability to causation in torts. Wagner has served on various academic and professional organizations, including several National Academies of Science committees, governing committees of the ABA and the Society for Risk Analysis, and as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the U.S. (ACUS). Her background includes a law degree and a Masters of Environmental Studies from Yale University, where she was Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal and Managing Editor of the Yale Journal of Regulation. Prior to her academic career, she clerked for the Honorable Albert Engel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and practiced law for four years in the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division and the Department of Agriculture's Office of the General Counsel. She has also taught at Case Western Law School and served as a visiting professor at Columbia and Vanderbilt Law Schools. Her work has received multiple awards, including the Hamilton Grand Prize for her book 'Bending Science' and the 2018 American Bar Association Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Social Science
• Computer Science
• Law
• Sociology
• Philosophy
• Surgery
• Physical therapy
• History
• Epistemology
• Chemistry
• Business
• Mathematics
• Physical medicine and rehabilitation
• Medicine
• Pathology

Selected publications

• Physical Therapy Management of Upper Cervical Spine Instability in a Patient With Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome: A Case Report

  JOSPT Cases · 2026-04-23

  article1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Individuals with the co-occurrence of hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and upper cervical instability (UCI) present complex rehabilitation challenges with limited published outcomes to guide rehabilitative or conservative care. CASE PRESENTATION: A 35-year-old woman with hEDS, UCI, and multisystem comorbidities presented with severe neck pain, presyncope, and profound functional limitation. Examination confirmed generalized joint hypermobility and high symptom irritability, supporting a modified, consensus-guided approach to safely initiate physical therapy rehabilitation. OUTCOME AND FOLLOW-UP: The patient completed 80 visits over 12 months of individualized rehabilitation, including education, neuroplasticity-based motor control retraining, and progressive strengthening tailored to symptom irritability. Treatment was based on a recently published consensus report outlining a framework for assessment and intervention. Pain decreased by 55%, neck disability improved by 49%, and function improved by 50%. She regained partial independence and reported a significantly improved quality of life. DISCUSSION: This case demonstrates that consensus-guided conservative rehabilitation, adjusted for symptom reactivity, may be associated with meaningful clinical improvement in patients with hEDS and UCI. JOSPT Cases 2026;6(2):100-111. Epub 23 April 2026. doi:10.2519/josptcases.2026.0199

  PublisherDOI

• Fool’s gold

  Science · 2025-06-19 · 1 citations

  editorialSenior author

  Already rocked by decades of political interference, corporate influence, mismanagement, and partisan efforts to undermine its authority, the expert bureaucracy, the "lifeblood" of the US administrative state, is now gasping for air. On 23 May, President Trump issued an executive order (EO)-Restoring Gold Standard Science-promising to fix these issues. Instead, the EO is poised to make them far worse: It officially empowers political appointees to override conclusions and interpretations of government scientists, threaten their professional autonomy, and undermine the scientific capacity of research and regulatory agencies.

  PublisherDOI

• Development of the Navigation Guide Evidence-to-Decision Framework for Environmental Health: Version 1.0

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2025-02-27 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Environmental exposures, including widespread industrial pollution, impact human health and are amplified in more highly exposed communities. Policy and regulatory frameworks for making decisions and recommendations on interventions to mitigate or prevent exposures tend to narrowly focus on exposure and some health-related data related to risks. Typically, such frameworks do not consider other factors, including essentiality, health equity, and distribution of benefits and costs. Further, decisions and recommendations lack transparency regarding how they were developed. We developed the Navigation Guide Evidence-to-Decision Framework for Environmental Health (E2DFEH) to provide a structured and transparent framework incorporating a range of scientific information and factors for decision-making. We reviewed current evidence-to-decision frameworks and engaged in an iterative consensus-based process involving 30 experts from 25 organizations in the academic, government, and nonprofit sectors. The E2DFEH framework includes three Foundations that are structural factors considered as part of recommendation development: 1) Essentiality, 2) Human Rights, and 3) Quality of the Evidence. It also includes three core Criteria that guide the development of a specific recommendation, informed by an evaluation of relevant evidence: 1) Environmental Justice, 2) Maximizing Benefits and Reducing Harm, and 3) Sociocultural Acceptability and Feasibility. The framework's goal is to make the decision process transparent and comprehensive through explicit consideration of core factors important for decisions, leading to more equitable and health-protective interventions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Development of the Navigation Guide Evidence-to-Decision Framework for Environmental Health: Version 1.0

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Unreliable Science in the Courtroom: Shifting the Courts' Focus from Assessing the Substance of an Expert's Analysis to the Process by which it was Produced <p></p>

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• How Not To Design Expert Bureaucracy: Lessons From Administrative Law 

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Democratic Civic Engagement in Occupational Therapy

  Adult Learning · 2024-10-24

  article

  Democratic adult education (AE) promotes social change through active and pragmatic learning. This learning considers the impact of individual, community, organization, and broader cultural influences. Democratic civic engagement (DCE) in higher education institutions (HEIs) emphasizes inclusive participation and reciprocity. These values are deeply grounded in democratic adult education (AE) practice and community problem-solving processes in practice-based professions like Occupational Therapy (OT). In this article, we examine a new graduate OT program in the northeast region of the US and the roles of OT stakeholders as co-creators and co-educators in both institutional and community education settings. We highlight how this program is grounded in DCE which helps bridge the gap between an academic program (OT within HEI) and the broader social environment (interlocking systems not built to support diverse lived experiences) using a DCE model.

  PublisherDOI

• Patient interest in the development of a center for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome/hypermobility spectrum disorder in the Chicagoland region

  Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases · 2024-03-14 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  BACKGROUND: The Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) are a group of connective tissue disorders that are hereditary in nature and characterized by joint hypermobility and tissue fragility. The complex nature of this unique patient population requires multidisciplinary care, but appropriate centers for such care do not exist in large portions of the country. Need for more integrated services has been identified in Chicagoland, or Chicago and its suburbs. In order to explore and begin to address barriers to seeking appropriate care facing EDS patients in this region, we developed an online survey which we circulated through EDS social media groups for Chicagoland patients. RESULTS: Three hundred and nine unique respondents participated. We found that there exists a strong medical need for and interest in the development of a center in the region, and participants reported that, if made available to them, they would make extensive and regular use of such a facility. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the establishment of a collaborative medical center specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of EDS, Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, and related disorders in the Chicagoland area would greatly benefit patients by providing comprehensive care, alleviate the burden on overworked healthcare providers, and contribute to the sustainability of medical facilities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Presentation and physical therapy management of upper cervical instability in patients with symptomatic generalized joint hypermobility: International expert consensus recommendations

  Frontiers in Medicine · 2023 · 25 citations

  • Medicine
  • Physical therapy
  • Physical medicine and rehabilitation

  Experts in symptomatic generalized joint hypermobility (S-GJH) agree that upper cervical instability (UCI) needs to be better recognized in S-GJH, which commonly presents in the clinic as generalized hypermobility spectrum disorder and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. While mild UCI may be common, it can still be impactful; though considerably less common, severe UCI can potentially be debilitating. UCI includes both atlanto-occipital and atlantoaxial instability. In the absence of research or published literature describing validated tests or prediction rules, it is not clear what signs and symptoms are most important for diagnosis of UCI. Similarly, healthcare providers lack agreed-upon ways to screen and classify different types or severity of UCI and how to manage UCI in this population. Consequently, recognition and management of UCI in this population has likely been inconsistent and not based on the knowledge and skills of the most experienced clinicians. The current work represents efforts of an international team of physical/physiotherapy clinicians and a S-GJH expert rheumatologist to develop expert consensus recommendations for screening, assessing, and managing patients with UCI associated with S-GJH. Hopefully these recommendations can improve overall recognition and care for this population by combining expertise from physical/physiotherapy clinicians and researchers spanning three continents. These recommendations may also stimulate more research into recognition and conservative care for this complex condition.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Patient Interest in the Development of a Center for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome/Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder in the Chicagoland Region

  Research Square · 2023-07-14 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Julie E. Owen

  39 shared

• Susan R. Komives

  37 shared

• Laura Osteen

  Florida State University

  36 shared

• Felicia C Mainella

  Kennesaw State University

  36 shared

• Susan D. Longerbeam

  36 shared

• Colin Halverson

  Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis

  27 shared

• Clair A. Francomano

  27 shared

• Thomas K. Doyle

  Sports Surgery Clinic

  25 shared

Awards & honors

• Hamilton Grand Prize for the best book published at UT in 20…
• 2018 American Bar Association Award for Scholarship in Admin…