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# Califf Pushing Workforce Initiatives
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/califf-pushing-workforce-initiatives/
- Published: 2016-03-30T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T20:51:45.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5135227

> FDA commissioner **Robert Califf** says that one of his highest priorities in leading the agency is to encourage and support a professional environment that enables the staff to thrive and to reach its full potential. Writing in an *FDA Voice* blog [post](http://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2016/03/priorities-teamwork-to-achieve-common-goals/?ref=fdaweb.com), Califf says that his workforce initiative is intended to: **(1)** improve the hiring system; **(2)** ensure that FDA has the best possible working conditions for staff; and **(3)** foster professional homes for the diverse professions that make up FDA teams so that the agency can recruit and retain them in a competitive market.  
>  
> “My top programmatic priority will likely come as no surprise,” Califf writes, “given the astonishing changes that are currently rippling through society: we must do everything possible to rapidly adapt our national and global systems of evidence generation to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by technological advances.”  
>  
> Other crucial issues that Califf says are on his front burner now and for the foreseeable future are: pain, tobacco product deeming, implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, antimicrobial resistance, interagency effectiveness, precision medicine, and cross-cutting issues.