Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein was appointed by Governor Martin O’Malley as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in January 2011. The Department includes Medicaid, public health, behavioral health, and services for the developmentally disabled, with an annual budget of approximately $10 billion.

In March 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Sharfstein to serve as the Principal Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency’s second highest-ranking position. He served as the Acting Commissioner from March 2009 through May 2009 and as Principal Deputy Commissioner through January 2011.

From December 2005 through March 2009, Dr. Sharfstein served as the Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore, Maryland. 

From July 2001 to December 2005, Dr. Sharfstein served as minority professional staff of the Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives for Congressman Henry A. Waxman.
Dr. Sharfstein is a 1991 graduate of Harvard College, a 1996 graduate of Harvard Medical School, a 1999 graduate of the combined residency program in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, and a 2001 graduate of the fellowship in general pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine.

In 2008, Dr. Sharfstein was named a Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine. Dr. Sharfstein now serves on the Health Information Technology Policy Committee, an advisory committee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal for the American Medical Association.