Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration
Ex Officio Non-Voting Director

Dr. Margaret "Peggy" Hamburg is one of the youngest people ever elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.  She is a highly regarded expert in community health and bio-defense, including preparedness for nuclear, biological, and chemical threats. 

Prior to becoming Commissioner, she  served as Senior Scientist for the Global Health and Security Initiative of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foundation dedicated to reducing the threat to public safety from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.  From 1997 to 2001, Hamburg held the position of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), serving as principal policy advisor to Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala.  From 1991 to 1997, she served as New York City Health Commissioner, a position in which she designed and implemented an internationally recognized tuberculosis control program that produced dramatic declines in tuberculosis cases, and created the first public health bio-terrorism preparedness program in the nation. 

A graduate of Radcliffe College, she earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed her training at the New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center.