Aug 18 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has chosen White House policy aide Heidi Overton to lead the Food and Drug Administration, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Overton, who is currently deputy director of the White House domestic policy council, previously worked at think tank America First Policy Institute.
She received her medical degree from the University of New Mexico, trained in general surgery at Johns Hopkins, and pursued clinical-investigation research training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Kyle Diamantas has been running the agency as acting chief since May, when Marty Makary resigned 13 months into the job after clashing with top White House and health advisers and drawing scrutiny for a series of controversial agency decisions.
The White House, the FDA and Overton did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Bloomberg News reported first that Trump picked Overton to lead the FDA.
(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb in Washington, Carlos Méndez in Mexico City; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Tom Hogue and Sonali Paul)
