| Home > Events > Bulls, Bears, and Birds Conference, 2005 > Speakers > Gene Matthews Gene Matthews, J.D., Director, Institute of Public Health Law; former Legal Advisor to CDC Transcript | Slide thumbnails | Slide show | Video  Gene Matthews is the Director of the Institute of Public Health Law, which is an operating arm of the CDC Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia. The mission of this new Institute is to expand the use of law as a tool in the practice of public health through outreach, training, and coordinated research.
Mr. Matthews served as the Legal Advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta from 1979 to 2004, where he directed a legal staff that grew to 30 persons. During those 25 years, he handled a wide range of public health law issues and litigated important public health lawsuits and civil discovery cases. Mr. Matthews is widely published and is frequently called upon to lecture on cutting-edge legal issues facing public health, such as bioterrorism preparedness, confidentiality, and livable communities. Since 1999, Mr. Matthews has also provided leadership for the development of CDC's internal Public Health Law Program, and he has guided this exciting initiative to reach out both to the legal community and to public health practitioners. His recent creation of the Institute of Public Health Law as part of the CDC Foundation is designed to create the external entity to complement CDC's internal public health law initiative and to build additional partnerships and activities using alternative funding mechanisms. In June 2004, Mr. Matthews received the Distinguished Career Award of the Public Health Law Association –"in recognition of a career devoted to using law to improve the public's health." Mr. Matthews also holds faculty appointments at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health and the Georgia State University College of Law. Mr. Matthews is a 1971 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law and is a member of the North Carolina Bar. | 
