Health Law Faculty Fellow, Fall 2007 – Spring 2009 

Roberta Berry is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Faculty Fellow at Georgia State Law. Professor Berry is author of The Ethics of Genetic Engineering (Routledge 2007) and co-editor of A Health Law Reader (Carolina Academic Press 1999) and has published numerous articles and book chapters on legal, ethical, and policy issues in biotechnological innovation, bioscience and biomedical research, and health care. Professor Berry serves on the editorial board of HealthCare Ethics Committee Forum. She has won three awards from her home institution (Georgia Tech): Outstanding Faculty Member (Student Government Association 2001); Ivan Allen Jr. Faculty Legacy Award (Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts 2004); and Class of 1940 W. Howard Ector Outstanding Teacher Award (Georgia Tech 2005).

Professor Berry teaches courses on biotechnology law, policy, and ethics.

Equal Justice Works Fellow, Fall 2007 – Spring 2009  

Recent Georgia State University College of Law (COL) graduate Aisha Saeed was named the recipient of a presitigious Equal Justice Works Fellowship in Winter 2007, making her the law school's first fellow from this distinguished organization for legal education.

The Equal Justice Works Fellowships Program was created in 1992 to address the shortage of attorneys working on behalf of traditionally under-served populations and causes. Each year some 350 law students and graduates compete for fellowships, with only 50 recipients named.

Applicants find an area of need in the community they wish to work in and create a comprehensive program to address unmet needs. The applications are evaluated by Equal Justice Works, with the most promising projects then sent to sponsors, who select deserving proposals for two-year funding.

"As a former teacher, I am acutely aware of the manner in which Georgia schools don't meet the educational needs of  low-income, chronically ill students," Saeed explained. "My fellowship project is designed to improve educational services and support to this population. I will provide legal representation, education and advocacy on behalf of children with chronic illness by working with the COL's Health Law Partnership (HeLP)."

The outcomes of Saeed's project include: improved access to education for these children; improved understanding by parents, health providers and educators of the needs of ill children; improved school policies for these children; and development of best practices for addressing their educational needs.

Equal Justice Works Fellowships seek to develop the public interest law leaders of the future, whether they continue to work in the nonprofit arena or become pro bono advocates in the private bar. Saeed's Equal Justice Works Fellowship project is being sponsored by the national labor and employment law firm of Ford & Harrison LLP. Her fellowship begins September 2007 and runs through 2009.

Health Law Faculty Fellow, Fall 2004 – Spring 2006 

Director, Institute of Public Health Law
Former Legal Advisor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

For 25 years, Gene Mathews served as Legal Advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has been a leading national figure in the area of public health law. Mr. Matthews completed his position with CDC in 2004, and has started developing the Public Health Law Institute in partnership with the CDC Foundation and with the goal of expanding the use of law as a tool in public health practice. During the 2004-2006 academic years, Mr. Matthews was a Faculty Fellow at the College of Law and was jointly sponsored at the College of Law by the Center for Law, Health & Society and the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth and the Physical Environment, as well as by GSU’s Institute of Public Health in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

While a faculty fellow in health law, Mr. Matthews presented a seminar series at Georgia State Law on "The 21st Century Challenge of Public Health and the Law" (November 17, 2004; January 25, 2005; March 28, 2005).

In June 2004, Mr. Matthews received the Distinguished Career Award presented by the Public Health Law Association. In January 2004, the annual “Gene Matthews Lectureship” was established by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation and the CDC Foundation to endow an annual guest lectureship at the Public Health Law Conference held in June every year and co-sponsored by the CDC and the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. The Symposium Issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME) on “Emerging Issues in Population Health: National and Global Perspective” (vol. 31, no. 4, 2003) was dedicated in tribute to Mr. Matthews for his leadership in founding the modern field of law and population health.

Professor Lawrence O. Gostin of Georgetown University Law Center wrote of Mr. Matthews in the Preface to the 2003 JLME Symposium tribute volume: “Gene Matthews has meant everything to law and population health--he founded the modern field, nurtured it, and provided such profound leadership and wisdom that I cannot begin to express his contribution in words. His service at CDC will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. As Gene leaves his government service and moves his work to the private sector, he has the deep appreciation of everyone who cares about using law as a tool for promoting the public's health.”