Meet Jesse L. Goodman, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Scientist

Jesse L. Goodman, M.D., M.P.H. is the Agency's Chief Scientist. In this capacity, he is responsible for leading and coordinating FDA's cross-cutting scientific and public health efforts, among which has been the FDA response to the H1N1 pandemic. The Office of the Chief Scientist works closely with FDA’s Centers, providing strategic leadership and support for FDA’s regulatory science and innovation initiatives.  These initiatives include the Critical Path Initiative, scientific professional development, scientific integrity, and the Medical Countermeasure Initiative (MCMi). MCMi works to enhance preparedness for terrorism and emerging infectious disease threats in support of the U.S. Government’s Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasure Enterprise. Dr. Goodman's first position with the FDA was as Senior Medical Adviser to the Commissioner in 1998. In that role, he initiated and co-chaired the U.S. Government-wide Task Force that issued the nation’s first Public Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance. He joined FDA full-time in 2001 as Deputy Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), becoming Director in 2003.

Among CBER’s major public health accomplishments under his leadership were:

• the public-private partnership that enabled rapid development and implementation of West Nile Virus screening of the blood supply, thereby preventing thousands of infections;
• the doubling of the number and capacity of U.S.-licensed influenza vaccine manufacturers;
• the licensure of many new life-saving vaccines, including against meningitis and cervical cancer;
• improvements in the supply of life-saving plasma products; and
• the implementation of a risk-based approach to enhancing the safety of transplanted tissues.

A graduate of Harvard, Dr. Goodman received his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his residency and fellowship training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and at UCLA, where he was also Chief Medical Resident. Prior to joining FDA, he was Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Minnesota, where he directed its multi-hospital research, training and clinical infectious diseases program. His laboratory was the first to isolate and characterize Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the agent causing a new tick-borne disease, human granulocytic ehrlichiosis.

Dr. Goodman has authored numerous scientific papers and edited the book Tick Borne Diseases of Humans, published by ASM Press in 2005. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Goodman is an active clinician and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota and is Staff Physician and Infectious Diseases Consultant at the National Naval and Walter Reed Army Medical Centers and the National Institutes of Health. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Oncology and Infectious Diseases.