Head of FDA’s Office Of Women’s Health to start next month

After quite the controversy, the FDA seems to have finally gotten their act together regarding the new head of the agency’s Office of Women’s Health. After Susan Wood resigned in protest over the FDA’s trumping of politics over science in its decision process concerning Plan B, the agency first announced the position would go to Norris Alderson–a man trained as a veterinarian.
Understandably, women weren’t too pleased. The FDA then said that they had never announced anything about Alderson, despite the fact that an email announcing his appointment was sent to several women’s groups and that he was listed on a Health and Human Services directory as the acting director of the office. Mysterious stuff. Theresa A. Toigo, a 20-year veteran of the FDA, was then made acting director.
It seems that the FDA has finally made a decision as to who will take over the position permanently–Kathleen Uhl, who was most recently the supervisory medical officer in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
I don’t know much about Uhl, but was glad to see that she had the support of Susan Wood:

…Wood said that Uhl “would be a good choice for the job.” Wood said that she has frequently worked with Uhl and that “she is a long-standing advocate for women’s health in the agency.”

Let’s hope she can bring some much-needed common sense and logic to an agency that seems to have anything but these days.