HHS In role
Kyle Diamantas
Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs (FDA)
Attorney (J.D.) serving as acting FDA commissioner since May 2026, following Marty Makary's resignation. He previously ran the Human Foods Program, where he drove the ultra-processed-food definition and dye work, and has also served as an HHS chief counselor to Secretary Kennedy.
Role status — October 2026: Diamantas is the acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs, in the role since May 2026 after Marty Makary’s resignation. Heidi Overton remains the pending nominee for the permanent commissioner job, so Diamantas leads the agency through an open-ended transition.
Diamantas, an attorney (J.D.), arrived at the commissioner’s office from inside the food program. As Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods from February 2025 to May 2026, he personally drove the ultra-processed-food definition work and the dye agenda — the files that defined the FDA’s MAHA-era food push. He has also served concurrently as an HHS chief counselor to Secretary Kennedy.
When he became acting commissioner in May 2026, his food portfolio passed to Donald Prater, who now runs the Human Foods Program under him. His tenure as acting commissioner is therefore two stories at once: agency-wide leadership during a transition, and a handoff of the food program he built to a successor he now oversees.
Why tracked here: Diamantas is the FDA’s acting head and the bridge between the Makary era and whoever the Senate eventually confirms — and the food program he shaped still runs on his blueprint.
Sources (Oct 2026): Wikipedia biography; Reuters, Sept. 30, 2026; FDA leadership page.