Dr. Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health, medicine, and science. She is co-president of the InterAcademy Partnership, an international consortium of academies of science, engineering and medicine, and also serves as vice-chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and is on the State Department’s Foreign Policy Advisory Board.

Previous leadership roles include: Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; National Academy of Medicine Foreign Secretary; President/Chair, American Association for the Advancement of Science; VP/Senior Scientist, Nuclear Threat Initiative; Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; NYC Health Commissioner; and Assistant Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

In addition to being a member of the Board of Directors of the Lasker Foundation, Dr. Hamburg sits on many boards and advisory committees. She graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School.