Former U.S. Health Secretary Califano To Discuss Substance Abuse Strategies in Yale Talk

New Haven, Conn. — Joseph Califano Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, will discuss strategies for curbing substance abuse in a talk at Yale School of Medicine on October 19 titled, “High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What To Do About It.”

Califano, who will be delivering the annual Abraham Ribicoff Memorial Lecture at Yale, is now chair of the board and president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA).

The lecture is part of Grand Rounds at Yale and it will be held from 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. in the auditorium at The Anlyan Center, 300 Cedar Street. There is no fee and the public is invited.

Califano was Special Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter. As Secretary he mounted major health promotion and disease prevention programs, including childhood immunization, an anti-smoking campaign, and an alcoholism initiative. Califano founded CASA at Columbia in 1992 and has overseen demonstration programs involving alcohol, illegal prescription and performance-enhancing drugs, and nicotine in more than 29 states.

The Abraham Ribicoff Memorial Lecture was established in honor of the late Abraham Ribicoff, a U.S. senator, governor of Connecticut, and Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President John F. Kennedy.