May 15, 2017

Dear Colleagues,

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) is pleased to announce that effective May 15, 2017, the Division of Human Resource Development (DHRD) in the Office of Resource Management, will become the Office of Training, Education, and Development (OTED) as part of the FDA’s Program Alignment, a broad agency initiative that will modernize and strengthen the agency’s workforce by specialization and improve its public health response with more timely decision making.  This internal realignment as a direct report to ORA will enable OTED to train, educate and develop with greater quality, efficiency and capability.

Over the last several years, DHRD increased the amount of training and development provided to the regulatory community.  As programs expanded, DHRD gained visibility, internal and external attention, and outgrew its current structure.  Through ORA’s Program Alignment, it became clear that in order to be most effective, the training and development strategy needed to change.  The internal realignment from DHRD to OTED will improve the ability develop and deliver training events that are most valuable to stakeholders and will result in significant organizational impact.

OTED will continue DHRD’s charge to help its stakeholders realize their full potential through its many quality initiatives — that is what DHRD did and that is what OTED will continue to do.

Mission: The OTED Mission is to provide high quality learning opportunities through timely, cost-effective learning products that support FDA’s mission and strategic goals and meets current training and development needs of ORA personnel, state and local regulatory officials, and other stakeholders.

What We Do: ORA’s OTED is responsible for the training and development of a 5,000+ member staff located in ORA’s field and headquarters offices throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.  In addition, OTED is responsible for providing training to state and local regulatory agency staff involved in the regulation of food, drugs, and other commodities regulated by FDA.

The OTED is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET continuing education units (CEU).  As an IACET Accredited Provider, OTED offers CEUs for its programs that qualify under the American National Standards Institute IACET Standard.  The OTED is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET continuing education units (CEU).  As an IACET Accredited Provider, OTED offers CEUs for its programs that qualify under the American National Standards Institute IACET Standard.

For additional information on the FDA’s Program Alignment initiative, to include an overview of Program Alignment, the six action plans, and the Program Alignment Group recommendations and decisions, please visit the ORA’s Program Alignment website:

https://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/OfficeofGlobalRegulatoryOperationsandPolicy/ORA/ucm549087.htm.

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Thank you,

FDA/ORA

Office of Communications and Project Management

Division of Communications

Mailbox:  DivComm-ORA@fda.hhs.gov