Sara Brenner

Sara Brenner is an American preventive medicine physician who served as the Principal Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs from 2025 to 2026, having previously served as acting commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She held roles in academia and federal health policy, including as a senior policy advisor in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Education Brenner graduated from Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School in Adel, Iowa in 1998.

Brenner received a B.S. in genetics, with a minor in philosophy, from Iowa State University. She earned an M.D. from the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa in 2006,

In 2018, Brenner joined the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as a senior policy advisor, where she worked on biomedical science, health data interoperability, translational science, and the U.S. bioeconomy. She was also worked to address the opioid epidemic in the United States and veterans' suicide prevention. She assumed this role following the departure of Robert Califf Subsequently, Brenner served as Principal Deputy Commissioner of the FDA until April 2026.