Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg is scheduled to speak at UCLA Friday to give insight into the agency.
Mark Weiner, a spokesman for the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, said the event will focus on Hamburg’s career and the future of the FDA.
The seminar will take the form of a Q&A; session that Lee Goodglick, co-director of UCLA’s Early Detection Research Network, will moderate.
“Many of the questions will concern the challenges (Hamburg) faced as an African-American woman in medicine,” Weiner said.
The seminar will also focus on policy challenges the agency faces.
“The commissioner must balance the political and practical sides of the agency,” Weiner said. “Programs and policies must promote public health to carry out the FDA’s mission, but Hamburg’s position is dependent on political navigation.”
Hamburg served as commissioner of food and drugs since her 2009 appointment by President Barack Obama. She was previously commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Friday’s seminar is expected to be attended by 100 people and is open to all UCLA students.