Andi
Lipstein
Fristedt
Leadership Role
Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs - Food and Drug Administration
Andi Lipstein Fristedt is the Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs. In this role, she provides strategic policy direction to advance the FDA’s mission and vision of protecting and promoting public health and oversees the agency’s engagement with Congress and global partners and state, local, territorial, and tribal policymakers.
Ms. Fristedt worked for nearly a decade in various capacities with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), first as a senior advisor to Chairman Tom Harkin and later to Ranking Member and Chair Patty Murray. In addition to serving as the Senate’s top Democratic public health staffer beginning in 2012, she was the HELP Committee’s Deputy Health Policy Director from 2017 until she joined the FDA in 2021. Ms. Fristedt spearheaded the Senate Democratic response to COVID-19, developing extensive policy proposals with respect to COVID-19 therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines. During her time in the Senate, Ms. Fristedt also led the drafting or negotiation of a wide range of public health legislation that was signed into law, including two reauthorizations of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, legislation increasing the legal age of tobacco sale to 21, and key provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act, the Lower Health Care Costs Act, and the SUPPORT for Patients Act. Ms. Fristedt began her federal service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Washington, DC office where she led the agency’s engagement with Congress on key issues, including HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis. She first joined CDC as a Presidential Management Fellow.
Before joining the federal government, Ms. Fristedt worked as a Chief of Staff in the Oregon House of Representatives and completed a fellowship at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ms. Fristedt holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon and a Master in Public Affairs from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, where she studied health and health policy.