Quick Facts
Biography
Elinore F. McCance-Katz is an American physician, academic, and government official who currently serves as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Mental Health and Substance Use. Prior to assuming her current role, she was the chief medical officer for the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals and a professor at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Her nomination was supported by the American Psychiatric Association, which released a statement saying "Dr. McCance-Katz has a wealth of experience in academic and public sector settings in addressing mental health and substance use disorders."
Education
McCance-Katz earned a B.A. in biology from Eastern Connecticut State University in 1978. She went on to attend Yale University, where she received an M.Phil and Ph.D. She attended medical school at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where she earned her M.D. in 1987. She completed her residency in psychiatry at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.
Career
McCance-Katz was on the faculty of Yale University from 1991 to 1998 and later taught at the University of Texas, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of California San Francisco. McCance-Katz was medical director for the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs before serving as the first chief medical officer for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a position which she held from 2013 to 2015. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. McCance-Katz and her husband hold a patent for a method used to prevent urine specimen substitution in substance use screening. She has conducted substantial research into addiction, specifically opioid addiction.