Prior to his current position, Dr. Powers was the Lead Medical Officer for Antimicrobial Drug Development and Resistance Initiatives at the US Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Powers was co-chair for the US Federal Inter-Agency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance. He also was a co-author on the Guidance for Patient Reported Outcomes, and Chair of the ISPOR Clinical Outcomes Assessment task force. Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. Powers was assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Maryland School of Medicine where he still is on the faculty. Dr. Powers also actively cares for patients and attends on the infectious diseases inpatient service.

Dr. Powers has been an investigator on over 60 clinical trials and published over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts. He has particular expertise in the design, conduct and analysis of clinical studies and has published on various aspects of clinical study design and outcome assessments. He has won several teaching awards, was nominated for the 2008 Distinguished Clinical Teacher Award by the National Institutes of Health Fellows Committee and is recipient of the 2020 Norman P. Salzman mentoring award. He is a recipient of the 2010 and 2020 NIH Director’s Award, the US Veteran’s Administration public service award, and an award for public service from the Public Health Service.

Dr. Powers received his bachelor’s degree and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his medical degree and residency training in internal medicine from Temple University School of Medicine, where he also served as Chief Resident. He completed his infectious diseases training at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.