Georgetown University Law Center
O’Neill Institute Fall Conversation Series with Lawrence Gostin:
Mayor Bloomberg’s Public Health Legacy
Biography
Lawrence O. Gostin, an internationally acclaimed scholar, is University Professor, Georgetown University’s highest academic rank conferred by the University President. Prof. Gostin directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and was the Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law.
He served as Associate Dean for Research at Georgetown Law from 2004 to 2008. He is Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University, Professor of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University, and Director of the Center for Law & the Public’s Health at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities.
Prof. Gostin holds a number of international academic professorial appointments. He is Visiting Professor (Faculty of Medical Sciences) and Research Fellow (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies) at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Prof. Gostin is the Claude Leon Foundation Distinguished Scholar and Visiting Professor at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He serves on the Governing Board of Directors of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. Prof. Gostin serves on the WHO Director-General’s Advisory Committee on Reforming the World Health
Organization. In 2007, the WHO Director-General appointed Prof. Gostin to the International Health Regulations (IHR) Roster of Experts and the Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health. Prof. Gostin holds numerous editorial appointments in prestigious academic journals throughout the world. His principal position is the Health Law and Ethics Editor, Contributing Writer, and Columnist for the Journal of the American Medical Association. He is also Founding Editor-in-Chief of Laws (an international open access law journal). Prof. Gostin has led major law reform initiatives in the U.S., including the drafting of the Model Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA) to combat bioterrorism and the “Turning Point” Model State Public Health Act. He is also leading a drafting team on developing a Model Public Health Law for the World Health Organization.