Matthew M. Kavanagh is the director of the Global Health Policy and Politics Initiative at the O’Neill Institute. He is also a visiting professor of law and assistant professor of global health at Georgetown University. Kavanagh’s research focuses on the political economy of health policy in low- and middle-income countries and the political impact of human and constitutional rights on population health.
Kavanagh is a member of the UNAIDS Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee and the council of the American Political Science Association Health Politics and Policy Section. Prior to his academic positions, he led transnational policy efforts at NGOs in the United States and Southern Africa focused on HIV and tuberculosis treatment, international trade, and water rights. He has presented his research and analysis before the UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Health, members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Ways and Means Committee, and the U.S. Trade Representative. Kavanagh was also a visiting researcher at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights, and International Law in Johannesburg. Grants for this work have come from the National Science Foundation, U.S. State Department, World Health Organization, amfAR: foundation for AIDS research, and others.
