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# Califf Leaving Post on Inauguration Day
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/califf-leaving-post-on-inauguration-day/
- Published: 2017-01-10T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T21:59:16.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5137675

FDA commissioner **Robert Califf** plans to officially resign on Inauguration Day (1/20), according to the agency. While FDA is being tight lipped on his replacement, it is assumed that next-in-line deputy commissioner **Stephen Ostroff** will take the reigns as acting commissioner — a position he handled after former commissioner **Margaret Hamburg** resigned in 2015.

  
Califf joined the agency 2/2015 and served as deputy commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco until his appointment as commissioner 2/2016\. Prior to joining the agency, Califf was a professor of medicine and vice chancellor for clinical and translational research at Duke University, where he reportedly will return. He also served as director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute and founding director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute.