Margaret Hamburg, M.D., is the twenty-first commissioner of the Food and Drug Association, as of May 2009. She's only the second woman to find herself in this position in the  history of the FDA and is very well qualified for it. She has worked with many different health agencies. She's also been involved in preventing TB and AIDS from spreading, and has been an important influence in public health. Here's a look at Dr. Hamburg, her qualifications, and what her position means.

Margaret Hamburg's Background

Dr. Hamburg is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School. Her residency was done at one of the nation's top ten hospitals, and she did important research on the nervous system at New York's Rockefeller University. Her mother was the first black woman at Vassar College and one of the first to get a medical degree from Yale. Her father was the president of the Institute of Medicine between 1975 and 1980.

Dr. Hamburg worked for the US Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion between 1986 and 1988. She also spent time studying how drugs affect our nervous systems at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Later, she was the Assistant Director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This was between 1989 and 1990. Her focus was on research to combat AIDS while at the NIAID.

In 1990, she became the Deputy Health Commissioner for New York City, and then the Commissioner. She was in this job until 1997, and was known for being a good leader and getting things done with a tight budget. While she had this job, she was also teaching at Columbia University School of Public Health and Cornell University Medical College. Her focus was to put in better services for children and women.

She also started programs to help stop HIV from spreading, and created the first public health program for defending against bio-terrorism. Dr. Hamburg also helped fight the 1990s TB outbreak. In 1993, President Clinton asked her to be his first Federal AIDS coordinator but she turned the job down because she was expecting her first child.

In 1994, Dr. Hamburg became a member of the Institute of Medicine. She is one of the youngest people ever to get this honor. Three years later, she joined President Clinton's list of appointees in the US Department of Health and Human Services. In 2001, she became part of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a group that wants to keep us safe from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. She was the Vice President for Biological Programs there.


Controversial Work

While Dr. Hamburg has always had good results, not everyone has agreed with her methods. Her needle exchange program was designed to slow down the spread of AIDS, but there was some public argument about it. She also challenged New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani by having an aide he wanted to fire come to a City Council hearing. Dr. Hamburg also opposed an effort to require AIDS teachers to promise to teach students to abstain from sex instead of focusing on how to prevent AIDS.


Nomination For The FDA

Margaret Hamburg was nominated to head the FDA in March of 2009 by President Obama. Many people praised her abilities when she was confirmed by the US Senate,. The Secretary of the HHS said that Dr. Hamburg has the calm, confidence, and experience to face the challenges of the position.

The FDA has been under fire recently because of food safety problems. In 2009, a number of people died from eating dangerous peanut products. Other food scares have included tomatoes, green onions, and ground beef. Many people say that the FDA is to blame for not keeping a close watch on how food and drugs are produced.

Dr. Hamburg is the person that President Obama has chosen to help overhaul this large agency. She has the background to get the job done, and both consumer groups and drug companies are willing to work with her. She may be the right person to make a difference in how the FDA works and whether it can protect the public.