Denise Hinton

Denise Hinton is an American nurse serving as the deputy surgeon general of the United States. She is a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Hinton was the chief scientist of the Food and Drug Administration from 2017 to 2021.

Hinton was raised in a military family.^[1] She earned her B.S. in nursing from Florida State University and a M.S. from Boston University.^[2] She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.^[2]

Hinton joined the United States Air Force Nurse Corps in the 1990s as a nurse officer.^[1] She served in the U.S. Air Force as a nurse officer.^[2] Hinton joined the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, working at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002 in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) division of cardiovascular and renal products and, later, served in the center's former division of training and development.^[2] Hinton held various leadership positions within the FDA, including deputy director of the CDER Office of Medical Policy (OMP).^[2] She concurrently served as the acting OMP Director from 2014 to 2016.^[2] From July 2017 to October 2021, Hinton served as the chief scientist of the FDA. In December 2020, as the FDA’s chief scientist, Hinton authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a major step in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic."^[3] She is currently the acting surgeon general of the United States.