Charles A. Gardner, PhD

Tobacco and Nicotine Harm Reduction Expert

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Served as Testifying Expert Witness in a major legal battle between a Big Tobacco company and several vape firms. We "won" the case (the litigant gave up). My background: PhD in Developmental Neurobiology. Three years working on The Hill for the US House of Representatives. Ten years in senior leadership positions in the US Department of Health and Human Services (five years at National Institutes of Health (NIH); five years as the Health Attache in the US Embassy New Delhi, India). Five years as Associate Director for Health Equity in the Rockefeller Foundation. Three years as a Senior Advisor to the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Two years as Director of Child Health at the UBS Optimus Foundation in Zurich Switzerland. Three years as a Director in the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, NYC. Two years as Executive Director of the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations (INNCO). One year as the Testifying Expert Witness for Public Health (my 94 page report and 50 page rebuttal, and the deposition, focused on the likely public health impact of the judge's potential decision. Two additional areas of expertise: (1) In India and at the Rockefeller Foundation, and later in Geneva, I worked on technology management and intellectual property protection issues. For example, my work was recognized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which sent me to give a series of lectures on technology management at the University of Tehran, Iran. (2) While at the NIH I also taught medical and nursing students as an Assistant Professor of Healthcare Ethics in Howard University Medical School. I am now, perhaps, one of the top 300 experts on tobacco harm reduction in the United States, and have an extensive network of contacts in this field including researchers, experts, leaders and consumers.