Winsor C. Schmidt, J.D., LL.M. is the Endowed Chair/Distinguished Scholar in Urban Health Policy, University of Louisville School of Medicine. Professor Schmidt’s publications include the books, Public Guardianship and the Elderly (Ballinger Publishing Company 1981), Guardianship: Court of Last Resort for the Elderly and Disabled (Carolina Academic Press 1995), and co-authorship of Public Guardianship After 25 Years: In the Best Interests of Incapacitated People? (Praeger Publishers 2010), as well as over 75 book chapters, journal articles, and monographs on health and mental health law and policy issues. His work informs health, social service, and legal professionals, as well as judges and legislators, about the findings, analyses, conclusions, and implications from over 30 years of national and state research on guardianship and protective services for the elderly and disabled. The Elder Law Report wrote, "Perhaps no one has studied guardianship, particularly public guardianship, more closely than Winsor Schmidt." According to the Journal of Aging and Social Policy, "(Professor Schmidt) is a provocative writer who raises a number of important questions about guardianship policy. He also provides invaluable information about what is known and not known from guardianship research." Professor Schmidt was the founding Chair of the nationally ranked Department of Health Policy and Administration, Washington State University until 2009.

Professor Schmidt’s teaching experience includes graduate courses on medical jurisprudence, forensic psychiatry, health law and policy, mental health law, aging policy and law, women’s health law and policy, children’s health law and policy, social science in law, and international health law and bioethics. Recent service experience includes the University of Louisville Hospital Ethics Committee, the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse Board of Directors, and the state of Washington’s Certified Professional Guardian Board. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.