Overton Picked to Lead FDA

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will nominate Dr. Heidi Overton as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, placing a White House health-policy adviser in line to lead one of the nation’s most influential public-health agencies.

Overton is not yet FDA commissioner. Her nomination requires Senate confirmation. If confirmed, she would succeed Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned in May after approximately 13 months in the position. Kyle Diamantas currently serves as acting commissioner.

Overton earned her medical degree from the University of New Mexico and a doctorate in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins University. She completed training in general surgery and preventive medicine at Johns Hopkins and is board-certified in public health and general preventive medicine.

She currently serves as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and regularly advises the president on health matters. During Trump’s first administration, she served as a White House Fellow. Before returning to government, she was chief policy officer and vice chair of the Center for a Healthy America at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative policy organization.

Trump said Overton would focus on accelerating medical cures, encouraging innovation, reforming clinical trials and lowering prescription-drug prices. Her record also suggests she would bring firmly established views to several matters under FDA authority.

Overton has supported the administration’s effort to revise federal childhood-vaccine recommendations, including reducing the number of routinely recommended immunizations and spacing some shots over separate visits. Major medical organizations have objected to those proposals, arguing that the established vaccination schedule is supported by extensive safety and effectiveness evidence.

She has also opposed abortion and criticized expanded access to Mifepristone, the FDA-approved medication commonly used with misoprostol for medication abortion. In a 2023 policy paper, she characterized abortion pills as dangerous. FDA reviews and extensive medical research have found mifepristone safe and effective when used as directed.

If confirmed, Overton would oversee the regulation of medications, vaccines, medical devices, food, tobacco products and cosmetics. She would inherit an agency confronting staffing losses, pressure to accelerate product reviews and continuing debates over food additives, vaccine policy, drug affordability and the FDA’s scientific independence.