Heidi Overton, MD, PhD, a top White House aide, has been picked to lead the FDA, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.
Overton is the deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who has worked on several of Trump's second-term health initiatives. She has become a trusted administration figure and a champion of the Republican president's goals.
If confirmed by the Senate, she would have to balance a raft of competing priorities, including Trump's fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans, and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Marty Makary, MD, MPH. He resigned in May, leaving behind unfinished projects such as work on ultraprocessed foods, antidepressants, and COVID-19 shots.
Referring to a "Dr. Heidi" in a Truth Social post, Trump said Overton was a smart and respected "rockstar" who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices, and more wins for Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" movement.
