The chief operating officer and executive director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will present the Charles L. Ihlenfeld Lecture on Public Policy and Ethics at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, in the West Virginia University College of Law Lugar Courtroom. Sylvia Matthewspresentation is titledFrom Bill Clinton to Bill Gates: Lessons from Public Service and Philanthropy.The lecture is free and open to the public.

Mathews is a native of Hinton, W.Va. She holds an A.B. in government from Harvard University and is an Oxford University Rhodes Scholar, with an honors degree in philosophy, politics and economics. Prior to her positions in federal government, she worked for McKinsey and Company as a finance and telecommunications analytical researcher.

She joined the Clinton/Gore campaign as its deputy director of economic policy in 1992, then held several appointments throughout the Clinton presidency, including chief of staff to the Secretary of Treasury, assistant to the President, deputy chief of staff to the President, and deputy director of OMB . Together with the OMB director, she developed the Presidents annual $1.5 trillion-plus budget and the budget strategy and rollout, as well as managed the government-wide Inspector Generals group.

Mathews currently is responsible for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations $1.2 billion annual budget, payout management and grant-making to global health advocacy organizations. She oversees finance, administration, legal affairs, advocacy, human resources and public affairs, as well as serves on the Gates Foundation executive team building partnerships with governments, industry and U.N. organizations. As executive director, she has strategic and operational oversight of three of the Foundations areas of giving: Pacific Northwest, Special Projects and Librariesa grant portfolio averaging $150 million-plus annually.

The Ihlenfeld lectures are made possible through a bequest by the late Charles L. Ihlenfeld, a 1923 graduate of the WVU College of Law. Mr. Ihlenfeld served as mayor of Wheeling and as a U.S. magistrate for the Northern District of West Virginia. His son and grandson, William J. Ihlenfeld and William J. Ihlenfeld II, also are College of Law graduates and practice law in Wheeling.