Namandjé Bumpus, PhD, serves as a strategic advisor to investment firms, associations, academic medical centers, and pharmaceutical, beauty, biotech, and techbio companies regarding scientific strategy and policy.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of Recursion Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage techbio company. Prior to this, she served as the FDA's Principal Deputy Commissioner, the No. 2 role at the FDA, until December 31, 2024. Dr. Bumpus began her career at the FDA as Chief Scientist in August 2022, before being promoted to Principal Deputy Commissioner. As Principal Deputy Commissioner, she oversaw the agency’s operations and worked closely with the FDA Commissioner to develop and implement key public health initiatives. Additionally, her portfolio included regulation of cosmetic products and certification of color additives for cosmetics, food, drugs, and devices; advancing alternative methods to animal testing; advisory committees; internal and external scientific and regulatory appeals; FDA modernization including establishment of the Human Foods Program and the Office of Inspections and Investigations; technology transfer and collaborative research agreements; development and implementation of cross-agency strategy and policy for the regulation of cannabis-derived products including cannabidiol (CBD); intramural scientific research; and extramural research initiatives.
Before joining the FDA, Dr. Bumpus was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she served as the E.K. Marshall and Thomas H. Maren Professor and director of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Prior to that she was associate dean for basic research. Dr. Bumpus is recognized as an international expert in basic and translational pharmacology. Her research has expanded knowledge of drug/chemical metabolism, mechanisms of chemical/drug-induced toxicity, pharmacogenetics, bioanalytical chemistry, infectious disease pharmacology, and single cell biology. Prior to becoming a faculty member at Hopkins, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. Dr. Bumpus earned a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Occidental College.
Dr. Bumpus is the immediate past-president of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, a 4000-member scientific society founded in 1908. She previously served as chair of the NIH Xenobiotic and Nutrient Disposition and Action study section. Her scientific contributions and impact have been recognized through national and international awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers), the Leon I. Goldberg Award and the Abrams Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the James Gillette Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics, and the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. In 2022, she was selected by the NIH to deliver the annual Rolla E. Dyer Lecture in Infectious Disease. Dr. Bumpus was the 2023 recipient of honorary membership in the Society of Toxicology, a designation bestowed upon scientists who embody outstanding and sustained achievements in the field of toxicology. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Medicine.