McCaughey is a constitutional scholar with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, a public policy expert, and a former Lt. Governor of New York State. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Beating Obamacare, and its sequel, Beating Obamacare 2014. In 2004, McCaughey founded and is now Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (also known as RID), a nationwide educational campaign to stop hospital-acquired infections. RID has won legislation in over 34 states for public reporting of infection rates.