Clifford E. Douglas, J.D.

Cliff Douglas is a long-time expert on a wide range of tobacco-related policy, regulatory and legal issues, ranging from federal regulation of tobacco products and the challenges and potential benefits of e-cigarettes to the widening disparities in the smoking population. As director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network, he leads the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project, a 20-year-old statewide project that provides information, consultation and advice for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, local units of government, tobacco control advocates, and communities regarding evidence-based policies and practices to protect Michigan residents from the harmful effects of tobacco.

He recently served as the American Cancer Society’s Vice President for Tobacco Control and as the founding Director of ACS’s Center for Tobacco Control from 2015 to 2020. There, he led the development of the organization’s new, progressive scientific and policy position related to eliminating the epidemic of combustible tobacco use in the U.S.; guided a national campaign to educate parents about vaping by youth; led the Great American Smokeout and the updating of that annual event to emphasize the importance of addressing health disparities; co-chaired the National Partnership on Behavioral Health and Tobacco Use; founded the $6 million Tobacco-Free Generation Campus Initiative, which provided technical assistance and grants to colleges and universities to help them become tobacco-free; and supported educational efforts to strengthen public understanding of the relationship between tobacco use and COVID-19.

During the Obama administration, he served as the consulting tobacco control policy advisor for the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health and the U.S. Surgeon General, and served as a lead author and editor of a landmark report titled Ending the Tobacco Epidemic: A Tobacco Control Strategic Action Plan for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Early in his career, he coordinated the successful national advocacy campaign to prohibit smoking on all commercial airline flights. He also served as an attorney and advisor in the state attorney general actions that resulted in the Master Settlement Agreement and represented smokers and their families in several landmark lawsuits against cigarette manufacturers. His work in the global arena included serving on the legal team that successfully defended the nation of Uruguay in an international trade action brought by Philip Morris International challenging that nation’s tobacco control laws.

His early work with Congress and the executive branch, his representation of plaintiffs in litigation against the tobacco industry, and his recruitment of prominent industry whistleblowers are chronicled in the book Civil Warriors: The Legal Siege on the Tobacco Industry by investigative reporter Dan Zegart.

• HMP618: Tobacco: From Seedling to Social Policy

• J.D., Law, University of Michigan Law School, 1983

• B.A., English, University of Michigan, 1980

• Douglas CE, Zatoński M, Janik-Koncewicz K, Zatoński WA. The Great American and Polish Smokeouts, efforts to combat growing health disparities in the tobacco epidemic, and sustaining efforts to end combustible tobacco use. J. Health Inequal. 2019;5(2):124-128. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/jhi.2019.91398.

• Koh HK, Douglas CE. The San Francisco Ban and the Future of e-Cigarettes. JAMA. 2019;322(16):1540-1541. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2752695.

• Douglas CE. A public health perspective on combating youth e-cigarette use while aiming at the bull’s eye: the end of combustible tobacco use. J. Health Inequal. 2019;5(1):31-32. doi:10.5114/jhi.2019.87820. https://www.termedia.pl/A-public-health-perspective-on-combating-youth-e-cigarette-use-while-aiming-at-the-bull-s-eye-the-end-of-combustible-tobacco-use,100,37619,0,1.html.
  
  
• Blake KD, Klein AL, Walpert L, Casey L, Hallett C, Douglas C, Sinha B, Koh H. Smoke-free and tobacco-free colleges and universities in the United States. Tobacco Control, Published Online First: 02 July 2019. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054829. https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/29/3/289.
  
  
• Douglas CE, Henson R, Drope J, Wender RC. The American Cancer Society public health statement on eliminating combustible tobacco use in the United States. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018 Jul;68(4):240-245. https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21455.
  
  
• Drope J, Liber AC, Cahn Z, Stoklosa M, Kennedy R, Douglas CE, Henson R, Drope J. Who's still smoking? Disparities in adult cigarette smoking prevalence in the United States. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018 Mar;68(2):106-115. https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21444.
  
  
• Drope J, Douglas C, Carter B. Tobacco Control (Chapter), in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, 4th Edition, Thun M. et al. (editors) (Oxford University Press: New York, 2018), 1207-1210.
  
  
• Gapstur SM, Drope JM, Jacobs EJ, Teras LR, McCullough ML, Douglas CE, Patel AV, Wender RC, Brawley OW. A blueprint for the primary prevention of cancer: Targeting established, modifiable risk factors. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018 Nov;68(6):446-470. https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21496.
  
  
• Drope J, Cahn Z, Kennedy R, Liber AC, Stoklosa M, Henson R, Douglas CE, Drope J. Key issues surrounding the health impacts of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and other sources of nicotine. CA Cancer J Clin. 2017 Nov;67(6):449-471. https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21413.
  
  
• Douglas C. Tobacco Companies Finally Have to Say Smoking Causes Cancer (Guest Editorial). The Cancer Letter. 2017 December 8;43(45):11-16. https://cancerletter.com/articles/20171208_3.

• Dietz WH, Douglas CE, Brownson RC. Chronic Disease Prevention: Tobacco Avoidance, Physical Activity, and Nutrition for a Healthy Start. JAMA. 2016 Oct 25;316(16):1645-1646. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2556015.

• Douglas C. “Henry Waxman and the Philip Morris 2,000: Fighting the Good Fight with the People’s Tobacco Control Champion,” Tobacco Control Legal Consortium Legal Update, Summer 2014, pp. 11-14. http://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/tclc-legal-update-summer-2014.pdf.

• Douglas CE, Davis RM, Beasley JK. Epidemiology of the Third Wave of Tobacco Litigation in the United States, 1994 – 2005, Tob Control. 2006 Dec 15 (Supp IV):iv9-iv16. https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/15/suppl_4/iv9.

• Milberger S, Davis RM, Douglas CE, et al. Tobacco Manufacturers’ Defense Against Plaintiffs’ Claims of Cancer Causation: Throwing Mud at the Wall and Hoping Some of It Will Stick. Tob Control. 2006 Dec 15 (Supp IV):iv17-iv26. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17130620.
  
  
• Cummings KM, Brown A, Douglas CE. Consumer Acceptable Risk: How Cigarette Companies Have Responded to Accusations that Their Products are Defective. Tob Control. 2006 Dec 15 (Supp IV):iv84-iv89. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2563578.

• Douglas CE. Seizing the Microphone on Capitol Hill. Tob Control. 1998 7:343-344. http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/7/4/340.5.full.

• Douglas CE. Taking Aim at the Bull’s-Eye: The Nicotine in Tobacco Products. Tob Control. 1998 7:215-218. http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/7/3/215.full.

• Bar of the District of Columbia
• Bar of the State of Illinois
• Bar of the State of New York
• Framework Convention Alliance
• National Alliance for Hispanic Health’s Nuestras Voces (Our Voices) Network Program
• National Lung Cancer Roundtable, Tobacco Treatment Working Group
• Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco
• Tobacco-Free Michigan
• University of Michigan Center for the Assessment of Tobacco Regulations (CAsToR)
• University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cancer Epidemiology & Prevention Research Program