Dr. David A. Kessler

David A. Kessler was the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1990 to 1997, first appointed by President George Bush and then reappointed by President Bill Clinton. Kessler was born on May 31, 1951, in New York City and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in 1973. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1979 and a J.D. from the law school of the University of Chicago in 1978. His medical specialty was pediatrics, and he served as an intern and resident in the Department of Pediatrics of the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. He was also a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, and was certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and the National Board of Medical Examiners.

Before assuming the position of commissioner, Kessler was a special consultant to Senator Orrin G. Hatch on food and drug-related questions and began teaching food and drug law at Columbia University’s School of Law in 1986. His research included experience at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City. Kessler’s articles on food labeling and the safety of new pharmaceuticals and medical devices appeared in several professional publications.

As commissioner of the FDA, Kessler moved quickly to restore public and industry confidence in the agency’s missions and operation. He reorganized the bureaucracy, borrowed personnel and practices from private industry, and raised standards for the approval of new drugs and medical and surgical appliances. Kessler also tackled controversial issues such as tobacco regulation, food labeling, breast implants, and fake fat olestra. His most significant achievement was the first-ever FDA regulations of tobacco, which went into effect on February 28, 1997, forbidding merchants from selling cigarettes to minors and restricting the marketing of tobacco products to young people. Kessler stepped down in 1997 to become dean of the Yale University School of Medicine.