Dear Colleagues:
It is with regret that I inform you that Dr. Jesse Goodman has decided to leave FDA to return to academia and clinical medicine. As FDA’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Goodman has been a strong voice for both our regulatory science enterprise, and for FDA’s role in U.S. and global public health. Among his many accomplishments as Chief Scientist is the development of FDA’s Medical Countermeasure Initiative, which has better positioned FDA to play a strong role in building the nation’s emergency medical counter measures capacity.
Dr. Goodman first came to FDA in 1998 from the University of Minnesota. As Senior Medical Advisor to Commissioners Friedman and Henney, he conceived of and co-chaired the first U.S. Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, before moving on to direct the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). Under his leadership, CBER worked closely with government and industry partners to help our nation prepare for and respond to major public health threats, including bioterrorism, West Nile Virus and other threats to blood and organ safety, and both seasonal and pandemic influenza.
After his departure from FDA, Dr. Goodman will be serving as Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases and Attending Physician at Georgetown University and the D.C. Veteran’s Administration Hospital. In addition to his teaching and patient care responsibilities, he will direct a new Center on Medical Product Access, Safety and Stewardship.
I am pleased to note that Dr. Stephen Ostroff, Chief Medical Officer in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Senior Public Health Advisor to FDA’s Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine, has agreed to take on the role of Acting Chief Scientist.
Dr. Ostroff has served in many distinguished roles prior to joining FDA, including at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he served as Deputy Director of National Center for Infectious Diseases and as Acting Director of CDC’s Select Agent Program as well as the Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Acting Physician General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ostroff also has consulted for the World Bank on public health projects in South Asia and Latin America.
Dr. Ostroff graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1981 and completed residencies in internal medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and preventive medicine at the CDC. He is a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and the American College of Physicians, and currently chairs the Public Health Committee of the American Society for Microbiology’s Public and Scientific Affairs Board.
Please join me in thanking Dr. Goodman for his many contributions and his commitment both to FDA and to public health and in wishing him well as he engages important public health issues from his new perspective. Please also help me welcome Dr. Ostroff to his new role.
Sincerely,
Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D.
Commissioner of Food and Drugs
