Joseph Anthony Califano Jr. was born on May 15, 1931, in Brooklyn, New York. Califano was secretary of health, education, and welfare from 1977 to 1979, in the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

Califano was the founding chairman of the board and president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He wrote several books, as well as many articles for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. He also served an adjunct professor of public health at Columbia University's Medical School and School of Public Health.