Casey Means American Author Born in 1987

Early life

Casey Means was born Paula Casey Means on 24 September 1987. She has said in a podcast interview that she was named after the Apostle Paul and dropped her first given name after finishing medical school. She completed secondary school at the Madeira School in 2005 and then attended Stanford University, graduating with honours in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in human biology. She stayed at Stanford for medical school and received her Doctor of Medicine from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2014, where she was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. During her studies she took a leadership role in the Arbor Free Clinic, a student-run clinic serving underserved patients, and published peer-reviewed articles.

Career

After graduating she began a residency in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at Oregon Health and Science University, with the aim of becoming a surgeon. She held research positions at the National Institutes of Health, New York University and the university itself, and published more than half a dozen scholarly papers in medical journals during her training. She left the five-year program in 2018, shortly before it would have finished, saying she had become disillusioned with the state of healthcare in the United States.

In January 2019 she founded Means Health in Portland, Oregon, a functional medicine practice and wellness consultancy. The Oregon Medical Board granted her a license in December 2018; it has been inactive since 2024. She also co-founded Levels, a health-technology company selling wearable glucose monitors and an app to track metrics, and as of 2024 was reported to serve as its chief medical officer. In 2022 she lectured at Stanford on subjects relating to food and health, teaching graduate and undergraduate students. Her website has described her as an investor or adviser in Truemed, a company founded by her brother, Calley Means. She has also appeared in sponsored content for supplements and other products on her social media accounts.

In 2024 she and her brother published Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health, through the Avery imprint of Penguin Random House. The book argues that food is converted to energy by the body's mitochondria and sets out a case for unprocessed foods over ultra-processed ones. A physician reviewing it for a family-medicine teaching journal recommended it for lifestyle-medicine reading groups, while a staff writer at The New Yorker criticised it as a mix of memoir, diet guide and argument for the positions of the Make America Healthy Again movement. A science communicator at McGill University's Office for Science and Society also disputed her claims about metabolic health.

Public roles

Means is regarded as one of the leaders of the Make America Healthy Again movement, together with her brother. Both advised Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 2024 presidential campaign and were involved in the discussions that led to his endorsement of Donald Trump. In late 2024 she was reported to be under consideration for several health posts in the incoming administration, among them Surgeon General and Commissioner of Food and Drugs.

On 7 May 2025 Trump announced that he would nominate her as Surgeon General, after the earlier nominee, Janette Nesheiwat, was withdrawn. Trump said he had made the choice on Kennedy's recommendation. The nomination drew criticism from supporters of evidence-based medicine and also from some vaccine sceptics. In July 2025 it was reported to be stalled in the Senate health committee while her financial disclosure and ethics paperwork was pending. A confirmation hearing planned for 30 October 2025, which would have been the first held virtually, was postponed. Her nomination lapsed under Senate rules on 3 January 2026, and Trump submitted it again ten days later. She testified before the committee on 25 February 2026, and in March it was reported to be stalled again over her testimony on vaccines and other health topics. Trump withdrew the nomination in April 2026 and put forward Nicole Saphier in her place.

Recognition

No awards are recorded for Means. Her educational honours are limited to graduating with honours from Stanford in 2009 and her induction into the Gold Humanism Honor Society.