SAMHSA appoints APA president-elect as chief medical officer

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recently announced the appointment of Anita Everett, MD, section chief of general psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, to chief medical officer.

Everett will lead the newly established Office of the Chief Medical Officer with the goal of advising strategic initiatives, policy directions and legislative issues to ensure that evidence-based and clinically approved practices are utilized in the development and implementation of SAMHSA programs.

Anita Everett

The office will consist of five staff members, including an additional medical doctor, dedicated to expanding SAMHSA’s ability to provide effective and sound approaches to promote behavioral health services in the U.S.

Further, the office will represent SAMHSA’s clinical perspectives when working with other HHS entities and federal agencies and will work closely with SAMHSA regional administrators, state, local and tribal organizations.

Everett was elected as president-elect of the APA in February 2016. She has previously served in various roles with the APA, including trustee-at-large, chair of the APA Task Force on Health Care Reform 2015, chair of the Scientific Committee of the Institute on Psychiatric Services, Assembly Representative and chair of the Council on Health Care Systems and Finance.

She has served as president of the Maryland Psychiatric Society and president of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists.

From 1999 to 2003, Everett served as Inspector General to the Office of the Governor in the Department of Mental Health in Virginia.

She has previously worked at SAMHSA as senior medical advisor.