Director, 2025 – 2026
Dr. Michael McLaughlin is a former FDA employee with 37+ years in the Agency. The first 23 were as a laboratory research chemist with the FDA/Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). His areas of interest included carbohydrate chemistry, economic adulteration, dietary fiber, and food defense. He then joined the ORA/Division of Field Science (DFS) in Feb 2010. His activities during his ORA tenure included the Laboratory Lead on the FDA Deepwater Horizon (DWH, Gulf Oil Spill) Incident Management Group (IMG). He was also involved in coordinating FERN labs in testing arsenic in various foods. These activities led to a detail as Director for the FERN Branch Chief in July 2012. When the first ORA reorg took effect in October 2012 creating the Office of Regulatory Science, he assumed the role of Director (Acting) for the new ORS Food and Feed Scientific Staff (FFSS). He was then selected for the permanent position of FFSS Director in December, 2014. After the 2017 ORA reorganization that unified the FDA regulatory labs network, he took the position of Staff Director, Human and Animal Food Scientific Staff- Chemistry Programs. He and his staff provided the programmatic oversight of the chemical testing programs conducted in the ORA labs. His career also included 25+ years as an officer in the United States Public Health Service where he rose to the rank of Captain (O-6). As a Public Health Service officer, his responsibilities included readiness to respond to man-made and natural disasters. He was a member of the PHS-1 DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) from 1993 – 2005 and was the Chief Logistics Officer for the PHS-2 RDF (Rapid Deployment Force) team from its inception in 2006 till January 2016. He was involved in responses to a number of national crises such as hurricanes Marilyn, Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Super Storm Sandy as well as a September 2001 deployment to the World Trade Center Collapse Zone. He has been a member of AOAC for over 20 years and recently completed a rotation as the Chair of the AOAC Technical Programing Council (TPC). His professional education includes a BS in Microbiology and a Ph.D. in Chemistry, both from Texas A&M University.
