Professor Wendy E. Parmet, a nationally recognized expert on disability discrimination, health law and public health law, has been named Northeastern's 2003-2005 Matthews Distinguished University Professor.

"Wendy's creative leadership in the area of public health and law will have a lasting impact on law schools around the country," said Dean Emily A. Spieler. "I am absolutely delighted that she has been honored in this way by Northeastern University, and that she will have this additional support to pursue her work."

Matthews professors, named for trustee chairman emeritus George Matthews and his wife, Kathleen Waters Matthews, receive two-year release from teaching duties and $10,000 to fund their research. Appointees carry the Matthews designation for the remainder of their tenure at Northeastern. Only one faculty member in the university is selected each year for this high honor; the law school, now with four Matthews Professors, is particularly well represented among this elite group.

Professor Parmet directs the law school's JD/MPH program with Tufts University School of Medicine and is a cofounder of the new Public Health Advocacy Institute. She is a prolific author, who has published articles on bioterrorism, discrimination and health law, and AIDS law in leading journals. In particular, Professor Parmet's scholarship has been groundbreaking in the analysis of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Through her writings, she has connected the courts' interpretation of disability to the larger social and cultural understandings of disability and disease. In 1998, she acted as co-counsel in Bragdon v. Abbott, the first Supreme Court case to interpret the definition of disability under the ADA to include people with HIV.

In addition to her outstanding scholarly accomplishments, Professor Parmet's career also illustrates a strong commitment to teaching. She teaches Constitutional Law, Public Health Law, Health Law, Bioethics, Disability Law and Federal Courts. She is currently working on a project designed to bring public health and population-based issues into law school curricula.