2017 Keynote Speaker: Mitch Zeller, J.D., Director, FDA Center for Tobacco Products 
Mitch Zeller, J.D., became director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) in March 2013. The mission of CTP—established by enactment of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act—is “to make tobacco-related death and disease part of America’s past, not America’s future, and, by doing so, ensure a healthier life for every American family.”
“Today, FDA has an unprecedented opportunity to use the new tools in the Tobacco Control Act,” Zeller said. “Product regulation is a powerful component of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the death and disease from tobacco use. We will marshal the science to support new policies to help combat the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States,” he added.
Mr. Zeller, a graduate of Dartmouth College and the American University Washington College of Law, has been working on FDA issues for more than 30 years. He began his career as a public interest attorney in 1982 at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). In 1988, Mr. Zeller left CSPI to become counsel to the Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Government Operations Committee where he conducted oversight of enforcement of federal health and safety laws.