Robert Califf

Robert Califf, MD, led the FDA through two administrations, first in 2016 and again from 2022 to 2025, when the White House called him back in the middle of the Omicron wave. A cardiologist by training, he founded the Duke Clinical Research Institute in 1996 and helped pioneer thrombolytic treatment for heart attacks at a time when, in his words, the standard of care was prayer, morphine, and nitrates.

Between his two terms at the agency, he served as Head of Clinical Policy and Strategy at Verily and Google Health under Alphabet. One of the most cited medical researchers in the world, with more than 1,300 peer-reviewed publications, he now teaches at Duke University School of Medicine and works across healthcare delivery and medical product development.

Califf appeared on Open Door Salon alongside Vid Desai, the FDA’s first Chief Information Officer, for a conversation with host Lori Ellis about what leadership turnover is doing to the agency. He described the loss of institutional knowledge as calamitous, distinguished the policy-setting role of a commissioner from the impartial refereeing done by career civil servants, and argued that any American strategy built on walling the country off from Chinese biotechnology is doomed to fail.