Naomi Tomoyasu

Naomi Tomoyasu, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. Prior to joining SAMHSA, Dr. Tomoyasu was the Deputy Director of the Veteran Administration's Health Services Research & Development Service, where she oversaw high priority portfolios including mental health and substance use to improve the quality of care for Veterans. She was also the Deputy Director of the Preventive and Population Health Care Models Group at the Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where she developed and implemented new service delivery and payment models for Medicare patients. She has served in various management roles at other HHS agencies, including at SAMHSA in the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), and at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the Bureau of Primary Health Care.

Dr. Tomoyasu served in state government at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the AIDS Administration, where she managed clinical and prevention programs, as well as the AIDS Drug Assistance and Insurance Assistance programs. Very early in her career, she conducted basic research on the neuroendocrine mechanisms of food intake and body weight regulation. Later, she began implementing more applied research in behavioral medicine and health psychology at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She earned her undergraduate degree in biological sciences at UC Berkeley and her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle.