Joseph Califano

Joseph Califano is the former secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. During his years as secretary of HEW (1977-1979), Califano reorganized the department, initiated major health promotion and disease prevention programs, including childhood immunization, an anti-smoking campaign and an alcoholism prevention initiative, and issued the first Surgeon General's Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. He also began the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars of student loans in default, and instituted computerized techniques to monitor welfare, Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Califano, who is currently the chairman and president of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, an independent non-profit research center affiliated with Columbia University in New York City, is an expert in health care delivery and cost-containment, and has lectured extensively about America's health care system. He is an adjunct professor of public health at Columbia University's Medical School and School of Public Health, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

He is the author of nine books, including "Governing America" (Simon and Schuster, 1981), about his years as secretary of HEW; "America's Health Care Revolution: Who Lives? Who Dies? Who Pays?" (Random House, 1986); "The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years" (Simon and Schuster, 1991); and "Radical Surgery: What's Next for America's Health Care" (Random House, 1995). He has written articles for "The New York Times," "The Washington Post," "Readers Digest," "New Republic," "Journal of the American Medical Association," "The New England Journal of Medicine," and numerous other publications.