What to know about Dr. Heidi Overton, Trump's pick to lead the FDA

Dr. Heidi Overton, a medical doctor and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, has been picked by President Donald Trump to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to Fortune, she is a trusted administration figure and a champion of the Republican president's goals.

Dr. Overton currently works as a White House policy aide, as reported by NPR Health, and has guided health policies in the president's second term, including an executive order to pare back childhood vaccines, as per Hindustan Times - World News. If confirmed by the Senate, she would lead an agency of 18,000 staffers who study and regulate food, drugs, medical devices, tobacco, and more.

President Trump described Dr. Overton as a "rockstar" who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices, and more wins for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" movement, as reported by Fortune and Time. Dr. Overton attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and has a doctoral degree. She would take over the role previously held by Dr. Marty Makary, who stepped down in May.

Brief written by urgent.news from NPR Health, Fortune, Hindustan Times - World News, NDTV, Time — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.