FDA Names New Director for Office of Women’s Health

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced it has appointed Kathleen Uhl, M.D., FAAFP, as the new Director of FDA’s Office of Women’s Health (OWH). Dr. Uhl, a Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, most recently served as a Supervisory Medical Officer in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER).

“Kathleen brings a breadth of professional experience, as well as a strong science background and passion for women’s health, to her new position,”said FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach. “In every previous role she has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and promises to be an outstanding liaison to the Agency’s external groups.”

Dr. Uhl’s experience includes clinical practice, basic science and clinical research, drug application review, drug safety oversight, and women’s health issues. She is board certified in Family Medicine and is a fellow of The American Academy of Family Physicians. Additionally, she has dual faculty appointments at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in family and internal medicine. She also serves as a practicing physician at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

She first joined FDA in 1998 as a reviewer in CDER’s Office of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmaceutics, and later served as Deputy Division Director and Acting Division Director, Office of Post-Marketing Drug Risk Assessment. She has collaborated with the Office of Women’s Health on a variety of FDA initiatives related to the inclusion of women and minorities in clinical trials and, more recently, served as reviewer and Supervisory Medical Officer in CDER’s Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Team in the Office of New Drugs.

Dr. Uhl received a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from Temple University and the Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. Uhl joined FDA following an internship and residency at Fort Benning, GA (family medicine), and fellowships at Walter Reed (medical research) and USUHS (clinical pharmacology). She received the Meritorious Service Medal for research in drug metabolism and drug development at Walter Reed. Her work includes numerous publications.

She will begin her official duties as Director of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health (OWH) in mid-December, 2005.

About FDA’s Office of Women’s Health:

FDA’s Office of Women’s Health serves as a champion for women’s health both within and outside the agency. To achieve its goals, OWH:

* Ensures that FDA functions, both regulatory and oversight, remain gender sensitive and responsive;
* Works to correct any identified gender disparities in drug, device and biologics testing, and regulation policy;
* Monitors progress of priority women’s health initiatives within FDA;
* Promotes an integrative and interactive approach regarding women’s health issues across all the organizational components of the FDA; and
* Forms partnerships with government and non-government entities, including consumer groups, health advocates, professional organizations, and industry, to promote FDA’s women’s health objectives.

Contact Information

Susan Cruzan

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Contact via E-mail