Michael
Mair
MPH
Leadership Role
Acting
Assistant Commissioner for Counterterrorism Policy - Office of the Chief Scientist
Michael Mair serves as the Acting Assistant Commissioner for Counterterrorism Policy and Acting Director of the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats (OCET) in the Office of the Chief Scientist, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this capacity, Mr. Mair is responsible for providing leadership, coordination, and oversight for FDA’s national and global health security and emerging threat portfolios. Mr. Mair also coordinates FDA’s Medical Countermeasures Initiative (MCMi), a key component of a broad U.S. government program to improve the United States’ capacity to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies.
Mr. Mair brings extensive experience to his current role of Acting Assistant Commissioner for Counterterrorism Policy and Acting Director, OCET, having worked in strengthening public health emergency preparedness and response since 2001—both in government and academia.
Mr. Mair joined FDA in 2011 and served as the OCET Director of Strategic Operations prior to taking on his current role in 2018. Before joining FDA, Mr. Mair served in the Division of Medical Countermeasure Strategy and Requirements in the Office of Policy and Planning under the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response from 2009 - 2011. From 2001 to 2009, Mr. Mair worked at the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and then the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Biosecurity, where his research focused on public health emergency preparedness including facilitating the development and availability of medical countermeasures.
From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Mair worked at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, where he conducted breast cancer research focusing on metastasis suppression. Prior to that, he spent 8 years in academic infectious disease research labs where his work focused on molecular epidemiology, pathogen detection, and antimicrobial resistance characterization.
Mr. Mair earned a BS in molecular biology from Juniata College and an MPH and a Certificate in Vaccine Science and Policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.