My guest today is CDR Stephen Chang.  He’s a pharmacist and an Officer in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.  He’s an advocate for public health, and during our interview, we discuss how he got from pharmacy school to working for the FDA, settings he’s worked in, roles he’s served, deployments he has been on, what he thought he would be doing upon graduation when he was just a pharmacy student, and advice for students and pharmacists who are considering their career options.  If you’re interested in a career in public health, you need to listen to our conversation!  

Thank you for listening to episode 239 of The Pharmacist’s Voice ® Podcast!

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BIO (August 2023)

CDR Stephen Chang, PharmD, MPH, currently is a Senior Clinical Policy Advisor at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), Office of Product Evaluation and Quality (OPEQ), Immediate Office, Post Market Programs and works from San Francisco, CA. He earned his Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, University of the Sciences in 2008, and his Master of Public Health from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2015. He also completed a PRESCIENT Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

CDR Chang has a broad range of professional certifications and training in the areas of executive management and leadership, pharmacy-based immunization delivery, and emergency preparedness, epidemiology, biostatistics, translational/precision health, data science. He has numerous research publications and speaker engagements as well as professional honors and awards. 

As a Senior Clinical Policy Advisor, CDR Chang serves as an expert and resource for Office and Center staff and Management within the Centers for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). This support includes providing expertise, direction, and feedback on policies, procedures, and program support on all aspects of regulatory and scientific policy to the seven Offices of Health Technology, Office of Regulatory Programs and Office of Clinical Evidence pertaining to the collection and use of Post Market data related to medical device use and performance. 

Of his 15-year career in federal service and in the United States Public Health Service, he most recently served as an Associate Director in the Division of Hepatology and Nutrition, Office of New Drugs (OND), Centers for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and as a Senior Medicaid Enterprise Systems State Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  Previously, he also served as an outpatient pharmacist in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).