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On Oct. 1, 2024, the FDA began implementing a reorganization impacting many parts of the agency. We are in the process of updating FDA.gov content to reflect these changes.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
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  5. Office of Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs
  6. Office of Global Policy and Strategy
  7. Office of Global Policy and Strategy Leadership
  1. Office of Global Policy and Strategy

Office of Global Policy and Strategy Leadership

Associate Commissioner for Global Policy and Strategy

Mark Adboo

Mark Abdoo is the Associate Commissioner for Global Policy and Strategy, providing executive oversight, strategic leadership and policy direction to FDA’s global policy, operations, trade, and diplomacy activities.

Mr. Abdoo joined the FDA in 2013 as the inaugural director of the Office of Public Health and Trade. In 2015, he took up the role of Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Policy, and in 2017 became Deputy Commissioner for Global Regulatory Operations and Policy (acting). 

Prior to his tenure at the FDA, Mr. Abdoo served in other senior positions in the Federal government including Senior Advisor in the Bureau for Food Security at the U.S. Agency for International Development, Director for Global Health and Food Security at the National Security Council, and in various senior positions in what was then the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

Mr. Abdoo received a Bachelor of Arts degree from College of the Holy Cross and conducted graduate studies at Brown University. Before entering joining Federal service, he lived in East Asia for nine years, where he owned two consulting companies. He is fluent in Mandarin.

Deputy Director, Office of Global Policy and Strategy

Kristi Hampton

Kristi Hampton is the Deputy Director for the Office of Global Policy and Strategy (OGPS). Since joining the FDA in 2000, Hampton has served in a variety of roles, including several programmatic, technical, and leadership positions including field investigator with the Office of Regulatory Affairs (now Office of Inspections and Investigations); compliance officer with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER); and two leadership positions in CDER’s Office of Compliance — Associate Director for Operations and Associate Director for Organizational Strategy. Before being named to the new OGPS role of Deputy Director in 2022, she was a Senior Advisor for organizational excellence in OGPS.  

As the Deputy Director, Hampton is responsible for ensuring that OGPS’ strategic, operational, policy, and programmatic activities function successfully across the globally dispersed organization, while emphasizing the importance of fostering an inclusive, supportive, high-performing organization that values people, an OGPS strategic priority. In her role, Hampton brings with her decades of experience engaging in regulatory enforcement/compliance oversight and policy development, and leading crosscutting leadership and organizational excellence initiatives such as change and transition management, strategic planning, leadership training and coaching, and organizational culture and employee engagement efforts.  

Hampton has a bachelor’s degree in biology, a master’s degree in executive leadership, and a master’s certificate in comprehensive evidence-based coaching. She is also an experienced leadership coach and is credentialed as a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation.  

Director, Office of Communications, Evaluation, and Logistics

Michael Oehlsen

Michael Oehlsen, Ph.D., is the Director of the Office of Communications, Evaluation, and Logistics (OCEL), which is comprised of three distinct functional teams: Communications, Planning and Evaluation, and Logistical Operations. These teams are responsible for providing the Office of Global Policy and Strategy (OGPS) with overall program and logistical support, strategic plan development and performance measurement, and office, agency, and international communications regarding OGPS achievements and global public health interests.

A U.S. Air Force veteran, Oehlsen began his FDA career in 2003 as a regulatory review chemist in the Division of Manufacturing Technologies (DMT) at the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM). During his time in the DMT, he reviewed animal drug applications and was an instructor for the FDA’s pharmaceutical inspectorate Level III drug certification program. 

In 2010, Oehlsen transitioned to the CVM’s Office of the Director as Director of International Policy and Logistics, where he oversaw the FDA’s Veterinary Mutual Recognition Agreement work with European Union member states and, later, with the United Kingdom following Brexit. He also led several key bilateral and multilateral international working groups to further harmonize global regulatory policies. While at the CVM, Oehlsen also established the center’s inaugural strategic plan for international programs and was responsible for creating and implementing the CVM’s international tracking system for monitoring, tracking, and evaluating all international activities — a system that was later adopted FDA-wide.

Oehlsen received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. in metallo-inorganic medicinal chemistry with a concentration in oncological platinum complexes, both from Virginia Commonwealth University. It was during his Ph.D. program — while working on a cancer drug that had entered into clinical trials — that Oehlsen was first introduced to federal and international drug policy.

Director, Office of Global Operations

John Weiner

John “Barr” Weiner, J.D., is the Director of OGPS’ Office of Global Operations (OGO), overseeing the FDA’s foreign offices located in strategic locations across the globe, and the international policy advisors, regional experts, and global operations and program support staff located at FDA headquarters.  

Weiner comes to OGPS from the FDA’s Office of Combination Products (OCP) where he served as the Associate Director for Policy. In his time at OCP, Weiner was a principal architect of the agency’s combination products regulatory program — leveraging the regulatory programs for drugs, devices, and biological products and ensuring appropriate premarket and postmarket coordination across the FDA.  

Weiner was previously an Associate Chief Counsel for the FDA, focusing on drug regulation and related innovation and competition issues, and on cross-cutting topics including the use of nanotechnology — briefly serving as the FDA’s policy lead for that issue.  In addition, he has served as the FDA’s liaison to the United States Trade Representative and other components of the United States Government on issues relating to pharmaceutical trade and competition, participating in multiple rounds of bilateral and regional trade negotiations as a technical advisor.   

Before coming to the FDA, Weiner was in private practice, focusing on food and drug, environmental, and related public international and trade law, representing clients before regulatory agencies, Congress, and regional and multilateral organizations, and in negotiations of international agreements including the Kyoto Protocol on climate change; the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants; and the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety. 

Weiner received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University and his Juris Doctor degree with honors from the Columbia University School of Law. 

Director, Office of Trade and Global Partnerships

Joseph Rieras

Joseph Rieras, J.D., is the Director of the Office of Trade and Global Partnerships (OTGP). He oversees and leads a broad range of significant, wide-ranging, and complex activities related to the FDA’s trade environment, spearheads FDA’s negotiation, conclusion, and implementation of mutual recognition agreements, and supervises the FDA’s efforts to establish international arrangements, including confidentiality commitments. 
  
Rieras earned his law degree from the Howard University School of Law. He started his career in the private sector as an attorney in the international trade group of a major D.C.-based law firm. He began his public service when he joined the Office of the General Counsel of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), within the Executive Office of the President. As an Associate General Counsel, Rieras represented the United States in litigation at the World Trade Organization, handled trade-related regulatory policy and legal matters, and was the lead counsel for trade agreement negotiations. He also served as a USTR Legal Advisor in Geneva, Switzerland.

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