Matthew M. Kavanagh, PhD

Matthew M. Kavanagh, PhD

Matthew M. Kavanagh, PhD, is a political scientist working at the intersection of law, political economy, and global health to explore how international and national governance institutions function and how they produce inequality, particularly in pandemics. He is the Director of Georgetown University's Center for Global Health Policy & Politics, a cross-campus collaboration between the Georgetown Law Center and School of Health. He is also Associate Professor of Global Health and Visiting Professor of Law and directs the United Nations-Georgetown Collaborating Center on Inequality Policy, AIDS, and Pandemics. Dr. Kavanagh has served in a range of roles inside and outside academia, including at the United Nations and as head of policy for several NGOs in the US and Southern Africa.

Dr. Kavanagh has been a visiting researcher at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Human Rights, and International Law, University of Johannesburg and the University of the West Indies Law Faculty at Cave Hill and has led research projects in South Africa, Haiti, Malawi, Lesotho, India, and Thailand. Funding for his work has come from the Ford Foundation, National Science Foundation, USAID, U.S. State Department, World Health Organization, Open Society Foundations, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and others. He has served on various scientific and technical advisory bodies for UNAIDS and the World Health Organization and on the council of the American Political Science Association Health Politics and Policy Section. He has presented his research and analysis before the G20 Ministers of Health, various United Nations Bodies, members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, European Parliament, and South African Department of Trade and Industry.

His has published over 50 first or senior-authored articles in social science and medical journals including The Lancet, Foreign Policy, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of International Affairs, Studies in Comparative International Development, JAMA, and others as well as dozens of policy reports and commentary.  He has been interviewed in outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, and Science on the politics of pandemics.

Education:

• University of Pennsylvania, PhD & MA, Political Science

• University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law, Certificate of Law

• Harvard University, M.Ed., Communities & Policy

• Vassar College, BA, Political Science