About Dr. David Mathews
David Mathews is president and chief executive officer of the Charles. F. Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio. At the Kettering Foundation, Dr. Mathews has steered the foundation’s research toward studying the role of the public in our political system. Nonpartisan and nonpolitical, Kettering’s research focuses on how to make democracy work as it should.
Prior to his work at the Kettering Foundation, Mathews was named President of the University of Alabama in 1969, and at the age of 33, he was the youngest president of a major university. He served as the university’s president until 1980, during which time he was named to President Gerald R. Ford’s cabinet as the 11th Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1975 to 1977. Mathews currently serves as Trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.