2025 Speakers

With more than two decades of distinguished experience at the highest levels of government and federal advocacy, Anna is a trusted advisor known for her leadership in crafting policy and navigating the policy making process to achieve results on a range of complex health care, life science and public health challenges. Throughout her career, she has advanced patient-focused and public health policy outcomes. In her current role at Akin, Anna applies her extensive experience in health policy, legislative dynamics and regulatory frameworks to advise and advocate on behalf of clients in the health care and life sciences sectors. Whether advising on FDA regulatory strategies, guiding legislative campaigns or facilitating engagement with key policymakers in Washington, Anna’s strategic foresight, insights, and practical advice ensure that her clients are well supported in an ever evolving and increasingly complex policy environment. Anna’s ability to align business objectives with public policy goals has made her an invaluable resource for clients navigating high-stakes issues. Anna's hands-on approach, seasoned knowhow and ability to anticipate political trends position her clients to achieve tangible results. Anna’s tenure as Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs at the FDA underscores her reputation as a leader in public health policy. As Deputy Commissioner, Anna played a critical role in overseeing the development and implementation of key policy initiatives and provided strategic policy direction to advance FDA’s public health mission. In addition to her senior FDA role, Anna's service at The White House Domestic Policy Council provided her with key experience navigating the policymaking process at the highest levels of the federal government, where she coordinated the development and implementation of a range of health care policy issues, including food, drug and public health policy, and The White House-led, interagency policy process to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2008. A hallmark of Anna’s career is her ability to build bipartisan coalitions, advancing reforms that cross political divides and branches of government. She was instrumental in the bipartisan negotiation and enactment of the most significant security enhancements to the United States’s pharmaceutical supply chain in the past 25 years through the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA). She also played a key role in the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act (PAHPRA), which bolstered the nation’s medical countermeasures and emergency preparedness systems. Anna brings extensive legislative experience from her time as Health Policy Director and Senior Advisor to Senator Richard Burr and working at the Senate HELP Committee. Anna’s contributions to advancing bipartisan FDA and medical and public health preparedness and response legislation were notable and numerous during her tenure in the Senate, including securing multiple patient-centered drug and device provisions in the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act and 21st Century Cures Act.