Cheryl Healton, DrPH, professor of public health policy and management and founding dean of the NYU School of Global Public Health, has been reappointed a senior policy analyst at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) effective September 30, 2024. In this role, Dr. Healton will bring her expertise in public health research, policy and communications to support the Office of Translational Research, whose mission is to utilize the best possible data and research to inform substance use policy and programs in the US. Dr. Healton will dedicate 20 percent effort under an Inter-professional Personnel Agreement.
Dr. Healton, who stepped down as GPH’s dean in 2022, is a leader in public health policy, particularly in tobacco control, smoking cessation, and other substance use. Prior to joining NYU, she led Legacy (now known as the Truth Initiative) and its national youth tobacco prevention and smoking cessation campaign, which were funded by the states through the master settlement agreement between tobacco companies and states and territories arising from litigation against the companies. The Truth Campaign is credited with reducing youth smoking rates to record lows.
At ONDCP, Dr. Healton will apply lessons learned from many public health campaigns to the challenges the nation faces with substance use.
Dr. Healton began her role at the White House in May 2023. In her new appointment, she will work with Tilda Farhat, PhD, MPH, former Director of the Office of Science Policy, Planning, Evaluation, and Reporting at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, and now Assistant Director for ONDCP’s Office of Translational Research.