Frances M. Harding serves as Director of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an operating division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CMHS leads national efforts to improve prevention and mental health treatment services for all Americans.

Ms. Harding also is responsible for leading SAMHSA’s Strategic Initiative for the Prevention of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness. The goal of this strategic initiative is to create prevention prepared communities where individuals, families, schools, workplaces, and communities take action to promote emotional health and prevent and reduce mental illness, substance abuse including tobacco, prescription drug misuse, and suicide across the lifespan. Ms. Harding is recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts in the field of drug and alcohol policy and is the author of several published articles on prevention.

Ms. Harding recently served as director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, which provides national leadership in the federal effort to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and drug problems. She also previously served as associate commissioner of the division of prevention and recovery at the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, where she was responsible for the development of policy and guidelines for alcohol and drug abuse and gambling prevention, treatment, and recovery programming.

Ms. Harding has held numerous national positions and received recognition from her peers for her work, including serving as president of the National Prevention Network, an organization representing all fifty states’ alcohol and other drug abuse prevention offices, and as New York State’s representative to the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors, where she served on its board of directors. In 2004, she became the first non-researcher to receive the prestigious Science to Practice Award from the International Society for Prevention Research.