Matthew M. Kavanagh

Matthew M. Kavanagh, PhD, is the Director of Georgetown University's Center for Global Health Policy & Politics, a cross-campus collaboration across the School of Health and O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He is also Assistant Professor of Global Health and Visiting Professor of Law.

Dr. Kavanagh’s research and policy work sits at the intersection of law, global health, and political science with a focus on the political determinants of health, law and policy during pandemics like AIDS and COVID-19, and on inequality as a driver of disease. A political scientist and legal analyst by training, he has served in a range of roles inside and outside academia including at the United Nations as Deputy Executive Director ad interim at UNAIDS and as head of policy for several NGOs in the US and Southern Africa.

He has been a visiting researcher at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights, and International Law in Johannesburg and the University of the West Indies Law Faculty at Cave Hill. Funding for his work has come from the National Science Foundation, USAID, U.S. State Department, World Health Organization, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations and others. He has served on various scientific and technical advisory bodies for UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.

Dr. Kavanagh holds a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania, certificate in health law from Penn Law, Masters in communities and policy from Harvard University, and BA from Vassar College.