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Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. Margaret A. Hamburg, an internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine, is the foreign secretary for the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), having stepped down from that role in April 2015 after almost six years of service. As FDA commissioner, she was known for advancing regulatory science, streamlining and modernizing the FDA’s regulatory pathways, and globalization of the agency. Before joining the FDA, Hamburg was founding vice president and senior scientist at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foundation dedicated to reducing nuclear, chemical, and biological threats. Previous government positions include assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, health commissioner for New York City, and assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Hamburg earned her B.A. from Harvard College and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and she completed her medical residency at Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American College of Physicians, and is an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Medicine. Hamburg sits on the boards of the Commonwealth Fund, the Simons Foundation, the Urban Institute, and the American Museum of Natural History. She is also a member of the Harvard University Global Advisory Council, the Global Health Scientific Advisory Committee for the Gates Foundation, the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, and the World Dementia Council. She is the recipient of multiple honorary degrees and numerous awards.