The White House announced last week that President Obama plans to nominate Yvette Roubideaux, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona's College of Medicine, as director of the Indian Health Service. Roubideaux, a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, had previously worked for IHS as a medical officer and clinical director on the San Carlos Indian Reservation and in the Gila River Indian community.
Obama has also nominated Dr. Margaret Hamburg to serve as the next U.S. Food & Drug Administration Commissioner and has named Dr. Joshua Sharfstein as principal deputy commissioner. Hamburg was a New York City health commissioner and an assistant secretary of HHS during the Clinton administration. According to press reports, Sharfstein has pushed the FDA to ban over-the-counter cold and cough medicines for children younger than 6, and in the past worked for now House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.