Kathleen Crosby BA

Kathleen Crosby is currently Director of the Office of Health Communication and Education at the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). The office is responsible for conducting public education, stakeholder outreach, and regulatory communication programs designed to ensure FDA's success in implementing the Tobacco Control Act. These efforts include developing breakthrough communication strategies to reduce youth tobacco use, helping current tobacco users quit, and building stakeholder understanding of and compliance with FDA tobacco product regulations.

Since joining CTP in February 2011, Ms Crosby has led the development and implementation of multiple public education campaigns targeting at-risk and underserved populations, including FDA's first-ever national youth tobacco prevention campaign, "The Real Cost." Launched in early 2014, the award-winning campaign has prevented an estimated 350,000 youth ages 11-18 from smoking to date. Ms Crosby also guides CTP's complex regulatory communications framework responsible for informing industry, academia, public health organizations, and the public about FDA actions to reduce the burden of tobacco use in the United States.

Ms Crosby's career spans 20 years of senior-level marketing and advertising experience working on large-scale multimedia campaigns and education programs for major national brands in both the private and non-profit sectors. Before beginning at CTP, Ms Crosby was Senior Vice President, Group Campaign Director of the Washington office of the Ad Council, where she successfully managed day-to-day operations. In her nine years at the Ad Council, she created integrated communication programs that have proven to inspire attitudinal and behavioural change for America's most pressing social issues. One of Ms Crosby's leadership roles at the Ad Council was as Campaign Director for 17 United States government agencies, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Transportation, Homeland Security, Energy, Defense, Agriculture, and Justice. Previously, while serving as Vice President of Strategic Planning at Arnold Worldwide, Ms Crosby oversaw the strategic development of the Legacy Foundation's "Truth" campaign, which is widely regarded as one of the most potent and successful tobacco prevention campaigns ever conducted in the United States.