Former FDA Chief Scientist Comes to GUMC to Launch Center

FEBRUARY 27, 2014 — Jesse L. Goodman, MD, MPH, former chief scientist for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a renowned expert in infectious diseases, has joined Georgetown University Medical Center (new window) to head a new center.

Goodman, who officially started Feb. 10, will launch the Center on Medical Product Access, Safety and Stewardship (COMPASS) at GUMC. The goal of the new center, which falls under the Dean for Research’s office, is to address three broad areas of national and global public health importance: medical product safety and security across the global manufacturing supply chain; antimicrobial drug resistance; and access to lifesaving medical products.

In addition to leading COMPASS, Goodman will continue his work in infectious diseases, serving as an attending physician at the Washington DC VA Medical Center (new window) and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (new window). He is being nominated as professor in the department of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to fully engage in these critical public health issues from a robust academic perspective,” Goodman says. “Addressing these complex challenges requires innovation and a broad, multidisciplinary approach involving multiple sectors at the university and beyond. There are scientific, medical, regulatory and policy dimensions, as well as the need to effectively harness and analyze massive data sets.”

Public Health Leader

GUMC leadership describe Goodman as a “leader in public health” who combines years of policy experience with a long career in academia.

“Jesse brings a wealth of expertise spanning science, medicine, regulation and public health, and has a proven record in addressing pressing public health needs from both the academic and federal sectors,” says Howard J. Federoff, MD, PhD (new window), executive vice president for health sciences at Georgetown University Medical Center and executive dean of the Georgetown School of Medicine (new window). “We look forward to his leadership in this vitally important area.”

After joining the FDA, Goodman founded and co-chaired the first U.S. Task Force to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance and then directed the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. In those roles and as FDA’s Chief Scientist from 2009 until February 2014, he worked extensively and collaboratively with industry, academia, government and global public health partners to prepare for and respond to major public health threats, emerging infectious diseases and terrorism, including leading FDA’s response to West Nile Virus and to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.

Prior to joining the FDA, Goodman was director of the division of infectious diseases and professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, where his National Institutes of Health-funded laboratory isolated and characterized the causative agent of a new tick-borne disease, known as human granulocytic anaplasmosis.

He received his AB in biology from Harvard College, his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his MPH from the University of Minnesota.

Collaborative Approach

Goodman says that broad collaboration and expertise is key to COMPASS’ success, and intends to pursue both regional and global engagement of public health and government officials, other academic institutions, industry and other partners.

“Right now many people are concerned but are typically seeing just a part of the elephant—there have not been broad, systematic approaches to dealing with highly complex issues such as antimicrobial drug resistance or medical product safety. We need to be thinking of how to address these problems across systems,” Goodman says.

By Lauren Wolkoff
GUMC Communications