Friday, April 21, 2017

President Trump Nominates Psychiatrist to Serve as Assistant Secretary of Mental Health


President Donald Trump announced on Friday his intent to nominate Elinore McCance-Katz, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist with a subspecialty in addiction psychiatry, to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use in the Department of Health and Human Services.

McCance-Katz, M.D., Ph.D., is currently the chief medical officer for the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals. She is also a professor of psychiatry and human behavior and professor of behavioral and social sciences at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University.

McCance-Katz previously served as the first chief medical officer of the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). A long-time member of APA, McCance-Katz led the Physicians' Clinical Support System for Buprenorphine, funded by SAMHSA grants, in collaboration with APA’s Council on Addiction Psychiatry. The program has helped train physicians to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid-dependent patients using distance-learning tools.

“Dr. McCance-Katz possesses a unique blend of academic and public sector experiences squarely focused on mental health and substance use disorders, having served in SAMHSA in the past,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A.

“As an accomplished physician,” said APA President Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D., “she will bring a wealth of knowledge in the prevention, treatment, and recovery of substance use disorders which currently challenges the United States. APA strongly supports her appointment.”

McCance-Katz obtained her Ph.D. from Yale University with a specialty in infectious disease epidemiology and is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is board certified in general psychiatry and in addiction psychiatry.