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Elizabeth McCaughey, Ph.D.

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Dr. Elizabeth McCaughey is a health policy expert and the former Lt. Governor of New York (1994-1998). She is the founder and Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a non-profit organization devoted solely to providing safer, cleaner hospital care, and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, where she focuses on the impact of medical innovation and scientific discovery on longevity, health care costs, and the economy.

McCaughey has had a distinguished career as a college professor and scholar. She served as the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, held a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and taught at Vassar College and Columbia University. She earned her master's degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University and her undergraduate degree from Vassar College, where she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Herbert H. Lehman Fellowship, John Jay Fellowship, Honorary Vassar Fellowship, Bancroft Dissertation Award, and the Richard B. Morris Prize.

McCaughey's research on how to prevent infection deaths has been featured on Good Morning America, the CBS Morning Show, ABC's 20/20, and many other national programs. She has also appeared on Fox News Network's Hannity & Colmes, The O’Reilly Factor, CNN's Talk Back Live, and numerous radio programs.

McCaughey's writings on health, education, and the law have appeared in many national publications, including the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, the New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, and the Wall Street Journal. Her 1994 analysis of the Clinton health plan won the H.L. Mencken Award and the National Magazine Award for the best article in the nation on public policy. She also has written two books on the history of the U.S. Constitution, Government by Choice: Inventing the United States Constitution and From Loyalist to Founding Father: The Political Odyssey of William Samuel Johnson.

(Profile posted Nov. 2006.)