Dr. Valerie McCray is a unique choice for a United States Senator for the State of Indiana.  She is entering the Senate race straight from the trenches.  As a psychologist that has spent most of her career working in the aftermath of trauma, she has the perspective necessary to insure mental health is considered in decisions made at the US Senate level.

Dr. McCray accepts every opportunity to serve our men and women of the military. She has evaluated thousands of our service men and women suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain injuries from their experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf War, and Vietnam. She works to streamline the disability eligibility process so that our soldiers can reassemble their lives as much as possible after  returning home.

Dr. McCray has a toughness of spirit that is most evident with her work with incarcerated men and women. She has worked in over a dozen high security prisons and jails in Indiana and Georgia. She has often said, “Prisons have become the mental health hospitals for the poor.”

Dr. McCray also works with victims of violence and families that have lost loved ones to violence. She treats children that have been displaced due to abuse and neglect, and girls that have been sex trafficked. She works tirelessly to help young people find a positive and healthy path regardless of their circumstances.

Dr. McCray embodies optimism and exudes a contagious excitement about the future of Indiana and our Nation.  She respects science and research and looks forward to embracing technology that promises to renew our sources of energy to clean and sustainable options that will strengthen our communities and safeguard our Nation. She strongly believes that embracing technology that brings clean manufacturing back to the United States,  we will not only improve the health of the planet but will improve our quality of life. She understands the critical need for ethics in technological advances such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), food sources, and robotics among others. “I support technology that will enhance us, not control or replace us.”  We have tough questions needing immediate ethical evaluation, “Just because we can, does not mean we should”. 

Dr. McCray attended Indianapolis Public Schools K-12th grade and knows the value of public education. She is the mother of one adult son, Ryan and daughter-in-law Barbara.  Dr. Val is the dog mom of Apollo the German Shepherd.

Dr. McCray earned her B.A., M.A., and PH.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.