Joseph Anthony Califano Jr. (born May 15, 1931) is an American attorney, professor, and public servant. He is known for the roles he played in shaping welfare policies in the cabinets of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter and for serving as United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Carter administration. He is also the founder and chairman of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASAColumbia), an evidence-based research organization, which is now the Partnership to End Addiction, where Califano holds the title of Chair Emeritus.

He has been an adjunct professor of public health at Columbia University Medical School and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Early life and education

Califano was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 15, 1931. His father, Joseph Anthony Califano, was an Italian American. His mother, Katherine (Gill) Califano, was a schoolteacher of Irish descent. He attended St. Gregory's Elementary School and Brooklyn Preparatory School in Brooklyn, New York City.

After high school, Califano graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature with honors in 1952. As an undergraduate at Holy Cross, he wrote his senior thesis on the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. He then earned his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Harvard Law School in 1955.

Califano was appointed Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 26, 1965. In this position, Califano served as LBJ's chief domestic aide, developing the President's legislative program as well as helping coordinate economic policies and handling domestic crises. He also worked on a variety of domestic problems, including labor-management relations, balance of payments, health care, education, environmental and urban issues, and civil rights. He served in this position until January 20, 1969. While in this post, The New York Times called him "The Deputy President for Domestic Affairs."

Non-military career

Califano was a member of the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter from March 1969 until May 1971. However, initially he refused to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was the first U.S. federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities. After an ultimatum and deadline, demonstrations took place in ten U.S. cities on April 5, 1977, including the 504 Sit-in at the regional HEW offices. This sit-in, led by Judith Heumann and organized by Kitty Cone, lasted until April 30, 1977, 25 days, with more than 150 people refusing to leave. It is the longest non-violent sit-in at a federal building to date. Califano signed the revised regulations on April 28, 1977.

As Secretary, Califano also funded the nation's first free standing hospice in Branford, Connecticut, and issued regulations to make Medicare reimbursement available for hospice care.

In 1979, as Secretary, Califano directed the Public Health Service to eliminate its official characterization of homosexuality as "a mental disease or defect" which immigration authorities had used to deny individuals entry to the United States solely because of their sexual orientation.

In 1979, Califano led a United States delegation to China on a trip which resulted in long-term institutionalization of health and education links between the two countries. Likewise, Califano and Carter's most senior aides had disagreements. Afterwards, Congressman Charlie Wilson said of Califano's firing- "Good grief! He's cut down the tall trees and left the monkeys." Ralph Nader compared it to "firing Mickey Mantle because he couldn't get along with the bat boy."

In 1992, he founded The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, which is now the Partnership to End Addiction.

Califano has written articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, New Republic, Journal of the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine, America, The Washington Monthly, and other publications.

He was Founding Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Califano has served as a director of CBS Corporation and Willis Group Holdings, Ltd. He is a Trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the Urban Institute, the Ditchley Foundation, the LBJ Foundation, and the National Health Museum; Trustee Emeritus of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Califano is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a former trustee of The Century Foundation and a former member of the advisory council of the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

Awards

In 2010, Califano received the Gustav O. Lienhard Award from the Institute of Medicine for his contributions to improving public health, his leadership in catalyzing federal action to curb smoking and his broader efforts to reduce the toll of addiction and substance abuse.

In November 2011, the Columbia Spectator editorial board published a piece titled "Cut ties to CASA", stating that "the methods that CASA uses to research substance abuse are shoddy and questionable, and reports of CASA's "findings" are often misleading and sensationalized" and that "Califano's outlandish claims reflect on the integrity of the organization, and unfortunately on Columbia's as well." Contrary to the claims made in the Spectator article, the organization's research staff has published more than 190 articles or book chapters in professional and peer-reviewed publications, including 121 articles in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Journal of Adolescent Health, the Annals of Internal Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Books

  • Our Damaged Democracy, Simon & Schuster/Atria Books, 2018
  • How to Raise a Drug Free Kid: The Straight Dope for Parents, Touchstone/Fireside Division, 2009
  • High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What To Do About It, PublicAffairs Press, 2007
  • Inside: A Public and Private Life, PublicAffairs Press, 2004
  • The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years, Simon & Schuster, 1991

Califano is the author of fourteen books. In early 1969, he traveled around the world on a study of the "student-youth-and-establishment" problem under a Ford Foundation grant. He wrote about those travels in his book, The Student Revolution: A Global Confrontation, published by W. W. Norton in 1969. Califano's second book, A Presidential Nation, was published by W. W. Norton in 1975. His third, The Media and the Law, was published by Praeger Special Studies in 1976 and was co-authored and co-edited with Howard Simons, Managing Editor of The Washington Post. His fourth, The Media and Business, was published by Random House in 1978 and was also in collaboration with Mr. Simons.

In May 1981, Simon and Schuster published Califano's fifth book, Governing America: An Insider's Report from the White House and the Cabinet, about his years as Secretary of HEW. In June 1982, Warner Books published his sixth, The 1982 Report on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism. Califano's seventh book, America's Health Care Revolution: Who Lives? Who Dies? Who Pays?, was published by Random House in 1986. His eighth book, The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years, was published by Simon and Schuster in 1991 and republished by Texas A & M University Press in 2000. His ninth book, Radical Surgery: What's Next for America's Health Care, was published by Random House in January 1995.

Personal life

He married Hilary Byers in 1983.