#BCGrad2021 Celebrates Resilience and Hope: Brooklyn College is Proud to Announce Joanne Waldstreicher, M.D., as Distinguished Alumna for Class of 2021 Commencement
May 18, 2021
Dr. Joanne Waldstreicher
Dr. Joanne Waldstreicher is a Trustee of the Brooklyn College Foundation and the Chief Medical Officer at Johnson & Johnson. In her role, she has oversight of pharmaceuticals, devices, and consumer products in the areas of safety, ethical science, and technology and R&D policies, including those related to clinical trial transparency and compassionate access. Waldstreicher chairs the R&D Development Pipeline Review Committee for Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, and also supports the Medical Devices and Consumer Development Committees.
Throughout her career, Waldstreicher has been driven by a passion for making a difference in the world through science. As a scientist and physician working in industry, she came to understand and truly appreciate the importance of keeping patients and consumers at the center of decisions related to medical safety. Over the course of her 30-plus year career, she has watched the medical world shift, with significant changes in the way patients participate in their own healthcare. In the past, many physicians made decisions for their patients, in some cases without an understanding of the patient’s perspectives or preferences. That approach has since given way to today’s norm of patient-centric decision-making and engagement: doctors and patients reviewing options, analyzing benefits and risks, and making decisions together.
In 2013, this understanding inspired Waldstreicher to take a different approach to product safety by creating the Johnson & Johnson Office of the Chief Medical Officer, or OCMO. The OCMO is an internal—but functionally independent—group within J&J that takes a patient-centered approach to advancing evidence- and science-based decision-making grounded in bioethical principles and values. By being functionally independent, not only of commercial but also of regulatory, legal, quality, and even R&D, the OCMO can make the tough decisions about the safety of J&J’s products, always keeping the best interests of patients and consumers at the center.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson in 2002, Waldstreicher was head of endocrinology and metabolism clinical research at Merck Research Laboratories, where she oversaw innovations in atherosclerosis, obesity, diabetes, urology, and dermatology. Prior to her career in industry, Dr. Waldstreicher graduated cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1987, completed her internship and residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and completed her endocrinology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Waldstreicher’s decision to leave academic medicine was inspired by realization of impactful research conducted by industry, that aims to make transformational differences in people’s health. By working in industry, she has had the opportunity to help millions of people around the world. Still, Waldstreicher appreciates the direct personal relationships that are uniquely possible through clinical care. Waldstreicher currently volunteers as a vaccinator in one of the local county vaccination clinics.
A recipient of both the Jonas Salk and Belle Zeller scholarships from the City University of New York, Waldstreicher graduated from Brooklyn College in 1981 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and as a Presidential Scholar. Waldstreicher serves on the advisory board of the recently launched Brooklyn College Cancer Center and is a faculty affiliate of the Division of Medical Ethics, Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine. In 2016, the National Association of Female Executives named her Healthcare Champion of the Year. Joanne combines broad experience in science and medicine with a passion for advancing transparency and ethics, with a goal of making a difference in the world.
