Click here or on the image above to watch Senator Capito’s introduction. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) today introduced Dr. Rahul Gupta, a West Virginian and President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve as the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), during his Senate nomination hearing. Dr. Gupta’s nomination is being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We know Dr. Gupta will visit West Virginia frequently, and we need the attention because we have a lot of the solutions in West Virginia that can serve to help the nation tackle this difficult problem. I am confident President Biden has submitted a nominee who will continue the good work of his predecessors... He brings a wealth of real world experience necessary to confront the realities of today’s addiction crisis and to resume the progress our nation was beginning to see pre-pandemic… Congratulations to Dr. Gupta and again, I thank President Biden for this excellent nomination,” Senator Capito said during her introductory remarks.

BACKGROUND:

Dr. Rahul Gupta, a specialist in internal medicine and preventive medicine, currently serves as the senior vice president and chief medical and health officer of March of Dimes. Previously, he served as an academic faculty member in Tennessee and Alabama before going to West Virginia originally in 2009 to lead the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department. In this role, he helped to oversee the county’s response to the 2014 water crisis. He then went on to serve as the state health officer and Commissioner for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health from 2015 to 2018. As the state’s chief health officer, Dr. Gupta helped lead the state’s opioid crisis response efforts and launched a number of pioneering health initiatives. He is also adjunct professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Leadership in the School of Public Health at West Virginia University and holds several other academic appointments as well. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Gupta has served as an advisor to nonprofit organizations and task forces on local, national and international public health policy and programs. He has served as a peer reviewer and editorial board member for journals and for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles. He was named “West Virginians of the Year” in 2017 by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and has received numerous teaching and service awards and honors.

Dr. Gupta was born in India and grew up in Maryland and the suburbs of Washington, D.C., the son of an Indian diplomat. At age 21, he completed medical school at University of Delhi, and subsequently did his internship and residency at St. Joseph Hospital, Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and a global master’s of business administration degree from the London School of Business and Finance.  

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