| Dr. David Kessler was born in New York in 1951. He graduated Amherst College in 1973,
and then went on to earn a degree from Harvard Medical School (1973-1979). While at
Harvard Dr. Kessler obtained a law degree from the University of Chicago (1977). From 1981
to 1984 he served as a consultant for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human
Resources, and from 1982 to 1984 he was special assistant to the president of Montefiore
Medical Center in New York. Dr. Kessler then went on to serve as medical director of the
Hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1984 until President Bush
appointed him as FDA commissioner in December of 1990. Under Dr. Kessler's leadership, the
FDA took a number of steps to become more consumer-oriented. The Nutrition Labeling and
Education Act (1994) was passed in order to make food labels more useful to the consumer.
The FDA also was able to cut the length of the drug approval process nearly in half. In
addition, Dr. Kessler oversaw the ban of silicone breast implants and took on the tobacco
industry in order to tighten regulation. Dr. Kessler announced his intention to step down
in 1996, citing a desire to return to private life. He officially left his position
Feburary 28, 1997. He was subsequently named dean of Yale medical school, a post which
became effective July, 1997.
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