Erin Darling Joins The Children’s Inn at NIH Board of Directors

January 30, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:

Sonja Luecke, communications manager, The Children’s Inn at NIH
c: 901-340-1975 [email protected]

Mysba Regis, marketing & communications director, The Children’s Inn at NIH

Erin Darling Joins The Children’s Inn at NIH Board of Directors

BETHESDA, Md. (Jan. 30, 2020) – Erin is associate vice president and counsel, federal policy, for Merck, where she leads the company’s U.S. policy team and oversees the development and implementation of advocacy and policy strategies on federal health care legislative and regulatory issues.

Before joining Merck in 2007, Erin was a private practice health care lawyer focused on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and compliance, privacy and human subject protection issues, federal and state fraud and abuse compliance, health care information technology initiatives, and FDA regulation. She also served as general counsel to several Washington-based health care trade associations and coalitions.

Her pro bono work includes representing and counseling victims of domestic abuse; representing clients in Social Security disability, custody, and housing and employment discrimination matters; and working with local non-profit organizations such as Bread for the City. In addition to serving on The Children’s Inn’s board of directors, she also is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and North Carolina.

“The Children’s Inn at NIH serves a critical role in the lives of children and families facing serious illness. The Inn holds a special place in my heart because I have seen firsthand through my own family their amazing work to support the children and families who are often far from the comforts of home and facing daunting health challenges.” Darling said, “I am honored to have this opportunity to serve The Inn and to support its mission to reduce the burden of illness, and provide children and their families a place like home.”

Darling holds a doctorate in law, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree in political science with distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Located on the NIH campus, The Children’s Inn is a nonprofit hospitality house that provides free lodging and supportive services to families of children with rare and serious illnesses whose best hope for a treatment or cure is a clinical trial at the NIH.

Every year, The Children’s Inn houses more than 1,500 children and their families from across the United States and the world to help reduce the burden of illness on families, make childhood possible despite illness and advance medical breakthroughs at the NIH that benefit children today and generations to come. For more information about The Children’s Inn, visit childrensinn.org.