Dr.
Namandjé
N.
Bumpus
Leadership Role
Principal Deputy Commissioner - Office of the Commissioner
Dr. Namandjé N. Bumpus became the FDA’s Principal Deputy Commissioner on February 1, 2024. In this role, she works closely with FDA leadership to develop, advance, and implement key public health initiatives, as well as to oversee the agency’s day-to-day functions. Dr. Bumpus played an integral leadership role in the single largest reorganization in the agency’s recent history, which created a unified Human Foods Program, a new model for field operations, and other modernization efforts.
Prior to becoming Principal Deputy Commissioner, Dr. Bumpus served as the FDA’s Chief Scientist, overseeing and quickly elevating the research foundation, science, and innovation that provides vital support for the agency’s public health mission. This included leading the agency’s implementation of the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act, an initiative for which she provides ongoing leadership.
A key focus of hers is to raise the cache of the FDA’s regulatory science within the agency and to the outside world, in part by being a champion of plain language, a staunch advocate for truth-telling in public health, and a formidable scientist.
Before joining the FDA, Dr. Bumpus was the E.K. Marshall and Thomas H. Maren Professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She served previously as associate dean for basic research in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Bumpus’ research has focused on drug metabolism, pharmacogenetics, bioanalytical chemistry, and infectious disease pharmacology. Dr. Bumpus joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2010 as an assistant professor. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Occidental College in 2003, a doctorate in pharmacology at the University of Michigan in 2007 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular and experimental medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, in 2010.
Dr. Bumpus is the immediate past president of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. She previously served as chair of the National Institutes of Health Xenobiotic and Nutrient Disposition and Action study section.
Her many honors include the Leon I. Goldberg Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the James Gillette Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics, the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on early career scientists and engineers. Dr. Bumpus is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2022, one of the highest honors in the fields of health, science, and medicine.