President Trump announced Wednesday that he has selected Dr. Heidi Overton, a physician and top White House aide, to lead the Food and Drug Administration, placing a trusted administration figure in line to oversee one of the federal government’s most consequential health agencies.

Overton currently serves as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and has worked on several of Trump’s second-term health initiatives. Trump described her in a Truth Social post as a “smart and respected ‘rockstar’” who would help deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation and lower drug prices, as well as furthering Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

Overton attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and holds a doctorate in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins University. Before joining the Trump administration, she served as chief policy officer at the conservative America First Policy Institute.

In recent months, Overton has appeared alongside Trump as he unveiled major health initiatives, including agreements with drugmakers aimed at lowering prescription drug prices and his vaccine order seeking to separate the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three individual immunizations. She has also been critical of abortion pills and, if confirmed, would be positioned to roll back FDA rules that have made the pills more accessible.

Overton would succeed Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned in May. Her nomination will first require Senate confirmation.

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