Dr. Tim McAfee is Professor in the Department of Behavior & Social Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. McAfee served as Director of CDC's Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) and Senior Medical Officer from 2010–2017. During his tenure, OSH developed, delivered, and evaluated Tips from Former Smokers®, the first federal anti-smoking media campaign, featuring real stories by people who smoked. He concurrently oversaw the federal role in the development of the National Network of Quitlines, which in conjunction with the Tips campaign helped millions of people quit.
During his tenure, OSH first identified the threat posed by e-cigarettes, especially for youth and young adults. He stewarded the 2014 50th anniversary Surgeon General’s Report, which recognized the potential for “end game” strategies beyond “tobacco control." He was also a senior reviewer and chapter author for the 2020 Smoking Cessation Surgeon General’s Report. Before his CDC work, he was a practicing primary care physician at Group Health (now Kaiser) in Washington state, where he oversaw one of the first successful implementations of the 5"A" cessation model in a large healthcare system, including gaining coverage for counseling and medications. He was a founder and Chief Medical Officer for Free & Clear (now a division of Optum/RVO Health), which developed, delivered, and evaluated telephone and web-based programs helping over a million people who smoke in their quitting attempts. Dr. McAfee is now working on UCSF’s Project Discovery Tobacco Project, investigating new industry products and strategies. He recently chaired WHO’s Tobacco Cessation Guideline Development Group and is a consultant to Vital Strategies Tobacco Control Division, collaborating with WHO to improve cessation support in low- and middle-income countries.