FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg to Deliver Commencement Address at Albert Einstein College of Medicine

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May 21, 2012, 04:41 ET

BRONX, N.Y., May 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., will deliver the keynote address at the 2012 commencement ceremony for Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Einstein's 54th graduation will take place at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall Wednesday, May 30 at 6:30 p.m.

The 21st commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Hamburg was appointed in 2009, and is only the second woman ever to fill the post. As the agency's top official, she oversees programs and policies to protect and promote public health, and has launched a nationwide public-private effort to grow regulatory science as a means for advancing the development and evaluation of medical products. She is also leading the FDA's shift into a global regulatory agency responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of imported food, drugs and medical devices sold in the United States.

"We are honored to have FDA Commissioner Hamburg as Einstein's commencement keynote speaker," said Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at Einstein. "As a highly accomplished physician, scientist, and public health official, she is a true role model for our graduates."

In her address to the 2012 graduates, Dr. Hamburg will reflect on her own experiences as a young intern, some of the lessons she learned, and what led her to a career in public health policy. Dr. Hamburg will also talk about the importance of doctors and scientists building trust and confidence in their patients and the public; the global and multidisciplinary nature of healthcare challenges in the 21st century; and the absolute necessity for healthcare professionals – from clinicians, to researchers, to leaders of critical regulatory agencies like the FDA – to communicate with each other and work as a team.

Dr. Hamburg said, "I look forward to congratulating this year's Einstein graduates and their families, and talking about our rapidly changing healthcare system, and both the challenges they face and responsibilities they bear as the next generation of doctors, researchers, and policymakers leading that system."

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Hamburg earned her M.D. from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at what is now New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center. She conducted neuroscience research at Rockefeller University in New York and at the National Institute of Mental Health, and later focused on AIDS research as assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

After just a year in the New York City Department of Health, Dr. Hamburg was named its commissioner, a position she held for six years. In 1997, three years after she was elected one of the youngest-ever members of the Institute of Medicine, President Bill Clinton named Dr. Hamburg assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She then became founding vice president for biological programs at a foundation dedicated to reducing the threat to public safety from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

Dr. Spiegel will present the diplomas at the May 30th ceremony. He will be joined by Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel. This year, Einstein plans to confer approximately 165 M.D. degrees and 16 Ph.D. degrees. Ten graduates will receive both an M.D. and a Ph.D. degree. Alumni and faculty teaching awards will also be given to a number of individuals during the ceremony.

About Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
Albert Einstein College of Medicine (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/home/default.asp) of Yeshiva University is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2011-2012 academic year, Einstein is home to 724 M.D. (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/education/md-program/md-program.aspx?id=11144) students, 248 Ph.D. (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/phd/index.asp?home) students, 117 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program (http://mstp.einstein.yu.edu/), and 368 postdoctoral research fellows (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/research/belfer-institute/default.aspx?id=28561&ekmensel=15074e5e_4074_4116_btnlink). The College of Medicine has 2,522 full time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/home/affiliates.asp). In 2011, Einstein received nearly $170 million in awards from the NIH. This includes the funding of major research centers (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/home/nih.asp) at Einstein in diabetes, cancer, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore Medical Center (http://www.montefiore.org/), the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Through its extensive affiliation network involving Montefiore, Jacobi Medical Center (http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/jacobi/html/home/home.shtml) –

Einstein's founding hospital, and five other hospital systems in the Bronx, Manhattan, Long Island and Brooklyn, Einstein runs one of the largest post-graduate medical training programs in the United States, offering approximately 155 residency programs to more than 2,200 physicians in training. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu (http://www.einstein.yu.edu/home/default.asp) and follow us on Twitter @EinsteinMed http://twitter.com/EinsteinMed).

SOURCE Albert Einstein College of Medicine