President Donald Trump has submitted nominations for an assistant secretary for health and an assistant secretary for mental health and substance abuse at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Trump on Friday selected Brett Giroir, M.D., president and CEO of ViraCyte LLC and an adjunct professor of pediatrics, tropical medicine and medical ethics and health policy at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, as HHS’s assistant secretary for health. Giroir previously served as executive vice president and CEO of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and director of the Defense Science Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Elinore F. McCance-Katz, M.D., Ph.D., has been selected as HHS’s assistant secretary for mental health and substance abuse. McCance-Katz, is the chief medical officer for the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals. She also serves as a professor of psychiatry and human behavior, as well as a professor of behavioral and social sciences, at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. She previously served as the first chief medical officer for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
