We all aspired to something when we chose to pursue psychiatry: advance neuroscience, help people, ease pain, heal families, and improve communities."
Anita Everett, M.D., was President of the American Psychiatric Association from 2017 to 2018. Dr. Everett is the Chief Medical Officer at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Director of the Office of Chief Medical Officers (OCMO). The OCMO is strategically positioned within SAMHSA to facilitate the development of policies, practices, and programs that comport with best practices and current trends in contemporary health care.
Dr. Everett has held several leadership roles at APA, including trustee-at-large on the APA Board of Trustees; chair of the APA Task Force on Healthcare Reform 2015; chair of the Scientific Program Committee of the Institute on Psychiatric Services; Assembly Representative; and chair of the Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing.
Prior to her arrival at SAMHSA, she served as the Section Chief of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Community and General Psychiatry in Baltimore, Maryland. She was an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and served on the faculty of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. At Hopkins, she directed 22 community psychiatry programs that provide a range of services to individuals from preschool age to older adults and through a range of programs that include intensive acute services as well as recovery support services for persons with Serious Mental Illnesses. More recently at Hopkins, she has been involved with the leadership of health system behavioral health integration into accountable care structures.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Everett served as the Senior Medical Advisor to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. There she worked on the promotion of access to quality services and access to medications in the Medicare prescription drug benefit. From 1999 to 2003, she served as the Inspector General to the Office of the Governor in the Department of Mental Health in Virginia. During this time, she completed over 80 inspections of institutions operated and licensed to provide mental health services in Virginia. She received the Patrick Henry Award for her outspoken advocacy.
Dr. Everett has served on the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Advisory Council. She is a past president of the Maryland Psychiatric Society and the American Association of Community Psychiatrists. She has been engaged in several international projects, which have included consultation with the Ministries of Health and the Department of Mental Health in Iraq and Afghanistan on the implementation of mental health services in these countries.