Office of the Director

 

Lawrence R. Deyton, M.S.P.H., M.D. Director, Center for Tobacco Products  

Described by FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as “the rare combination of public health expert, administrative leader, scientist, and clinician,” Dr. Lawrence Deyton became the Center for Tobacco Product’s (CTP’s) first director on August 19, 2009.

Since his appointment, Dr. Deyton has overseen implementation and enforcement of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) including its prohibition of marketing tobacco products to children and adolescents; its ban on misleading descriptors (“light,” “low,” “mild”); and the law’s requirement of full disclosure of tobacco product ingredients. These achievements, combined with the other provisions of the TCA, represent the most far-reaching public intervention in a generation and, will, in the words of CTP’s vision statement, help “to make tobacco-related death and disease part of America’s past, not America’s future, and, by doing so, ensure a healthier life for every family.”

Prior to joining FDA, Dr. Deyton was Chief Public Health and Environmental Hazards Officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. His responsibilities there included oversight of the VA’s public health programs including the health of women veterans, the long-term health consequences of military service, the VA’s emergency preparation and response program, and tobacco use cessation.

Previously, Dr. Deyton served for 11 years in leadership positions in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), six years in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at HHS, and as a legislative aide with the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health and the Environment in the 1970s.

Dr. Deyton was a founder in 1978 of the Whitman Walker Clinic, a community based AIDS service organization in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of University of Kansas, the Harvard School of Public Health and the George Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Deyton’s post-doctorate medical training was at the University of Southern California/Los Angeles County Medical Center. His training is in public health, internal medicine, and infectious diseases. Dr. Deyton continues to care for patients on a regular basis at the Washington, DC VA Medical Center.

In 2011, Dr. Deyton was a finalist for the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal for his outstanding contributions to the health, safety and well-being of Americans.