Sara Brenner M.D., M.P.H. Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs - Food and Drug Administration

Sara Brenner M.D., M.P.H.

Sara Brenner, M.D., M.P.H. is a preventive medicine and public health physician at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with expertise in diagnostics, regulation, health policy and administration, public health preparedness, emergency response, nanomedicine, medical ethics, and higher education. She has broad medical, scientific, and federal health policy experience including coordinating whole-of-government operations with a focus on medical countermeasures, technological innovation, regulation, public health preparedness, and data analytics on the front lines of the COVID-19 national response spanning two administrations. Dr. Brenner is a fierce advocate and champion for patient-centered medical ethics as the foundation for the health care enterprise and has dedicated her life to disease prevention, health promotion, and public service.

Dr. Brenner most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer for In Vitro Diagnostics and Associate Director for Medical Affairs in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the FDA where she advised leadership on regulatory premarket and post-market compliance and surveillance as well as broader initiatives to promote and protect public health across the medical technology landscape. She contributed to decisions regarding policy development, program execution, and short- and long-range program goals and objectives. She provided medical, public health, technological, and scientific direction to a multidisciplinary professional staff engaged in developing and implementing standards for the safety and effectiveness of medical devices marketed and used throughout the U.S.

From February 2020 - May 2023, Dr. Brenner supported the National COVID-19 Response at multiple levels, focused on diagnostics, data, and leveraging technology across the interagency response, including serving as the Diagnostic Data Lead on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Data Strategy and Execution Workgroup. She and her team worked to advance diagnostic data quality, harmonization, reporting, diagnostic device performance, and leverage emerging technologies for public health, medical, and policy decision-making during the pandemic. They communicated directly with a broad community across the U.S. including states, territories, and local health departments and advanced both policy and technical recommendations and implementation strategies with senior leaders in HHS and the White House. Her championing of these efforts helped to secure significant resources for formal program development at the FDA in the areas of digital diagnostics and laboratory data interoperability.

Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. Brenner served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy with a broad portfolio in biomedical science, technology, and human health. From within the Executive Office of the President (EOP) she worked with U.S. departments and agencies, the Office of Management and Budget, the National Security Council, the Domestic Policy Council, and other White House components to develop national policy relevant to health care, medical technology, biomedical science, innovative early-stage research, and workforce training and education. Her portfolio included health data interoperability, privacy, and national security, interagency coordination in biological and health sciences, research business models and reducing burdens on the national research enterprise, open science/open data initiatives, translational science and commercialization, promotion and protection of the U.S. bioeconomy, biomedical research in microgravity (space), national public health response to combat the opioid crisis, Veterans’ suicide prevention, and risk assessment and mitigation related to human exposures to contaminants of emerging concern. Dr. Brenner worked throughout the EOP and across agencies to develop high level policy priorities, actions, and implementation strategies. She also engaged numerous and diverse parties from the public and private sectors in carefully crafting recommendations, policy options, and solutions to pressing needs and opportunities on technology and human health.

Prior to joining the U.S. Federal Government, Dr. Brenner was a tenured faculty member at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute Colleges of Nanoscale Science & Engineering where she was an Associate Professor of Nanobioscience, the Assistant Vice President for NanoHealth Initiatives, and the Director of the M.D./Ph.D. Program in Nanomedicine. Dr. Brenner’s academic research advanced technology applications in the life sciences, including medicine and public health, as well as safeguarded against unintended health effects of exposure to engineered nanomaterials and emerging advanced materials. She led health initiatives related to nanoscale and advanced material applications in medicine, as well as conducted research with diverse parties to evaluate exposure in the workplace, consumer marketplace, and environment.

Dr. Brenner received her M.D. from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, her M.P.H. from the SUNY UAlbany School of Public Health (Health Policy and Administration), and B.S. in genetics (minor in philosophy) from Iowa State University. She trained in Internal Medicine at Evanston Northwestern in Chicago and Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the New York State Department of Health and SUNY UAlbany School of Public Health. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to science, medicine, and public health including the Distinguished Achievement in Federal Data and Policy, HHS (2023) and the COVID-19 Pandemic Civilian Service Medal, HHS (2021).

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