IPEM 顾孝诚讲座：如何做好文职人员
 

 

古丽博士演讲全文中文翻译

首先，感谢IPEM项目能让我来做报告，谈谈做国家文职人员的感受。有幸的是台下还有人比我做文职人员的时间比我更长，Nick和Gang都比我到FDA早，他们的薪火相传和全力支持让我能享受这份国家文职人员的工作。我并不是在场唯一的文职人员，在这里我想对所有在我之前工作的人们表达我的敬意。

Gang对我的职业生涯做了很好的介绍，从我上学、一直到在FDA和NIH的工作的整个过程中，让我最受鼓舞的，就是那些在我之前工作的人，招聘我的人，还有那些告诉我做国家公职人员有多么重要的人们。如果没有这些人来向我解释，我个人能够给国家政府，或者外国政府带来什么价值的话，我可能不会将政府文职人员作为我的职业选项。

文职人员这条职业道路的选择对于我个人意义重大，同时我也希望能对美国公民产生价值。在我的职业生涯中，向别人来介绍文职人员的意义也成了一件重要的事情，我不想仅仅向别人介绍我们的政策法规或者专业内容，我更想尝试描述为什么我作为一名文职人员所做的事情对我来说意义非凡。很庆幸能在这个时机做这样一个报告，我来中国已经2年了，而且很快在8月8号就要离开，这可能是我在中国最后一次公开的讲话。对我来说这有些触景生情，因为美国FDA与IPEM项目合作多年，而我在华的时间里，也尽我所能参与到合作中去，与中国制药圈有了更深的联系。这就是我可能有些情绪化的原因。

我今天想来谈谈为什么我选择国家文职人员作为我的职业道路。刚才提到我职业生涯中那些告诉我，我个人能创造什么价值的人们。其实我也遇到过这种情况，听完一些人的描述以后可能没有任何人会选择做文职人员了。但是我遇到的人们，他们用非常娓娓道来的方式向我介绍文职人员的价值，让听众能够对他们描述的情形产生巨大的共鸣。作为一名国家文职人员，我感觉到自己和FDA的使命是紧密联结的，自己和帮助美国民众的使命是紧密联结的。找到这些“结”至关重要，不论是这种联结是铁轨钢桥还是草蛇灰线。

在准备今天的报告的时候，我到网上查了“文职人员”的具体定义，网上说，文职人员就是在公共领域工作，受雇于政府部门或机构的人。我不得不说，这个定义让文职人员这个角色有些黯然失色。对我来说，文职人员不是仅仅被政府雇佣，更多的是体现你为之工作的使命，这样你就能感觉到自己背赋予了力量，帮助你突破限制，创造和改变。我们确实是基于政府授权工作，但这份工作不仅仅是海上坐船观光，而是你自己要亲自到这片海中，去冲击浪花，实现个人的价值，带来改变。维基百科和韦伯辞典给文职人员的定义是十分精准的，但事实上，这个定义没有说明白文职人员这份工作对于每个个体来说的意义何在。如果让我来下这个定义，我会说文职人员的工作就是将机构使命与自我产生联结的过程，不仅仅是将自己联结，还有家人朋友的联结，我下面说说，我是怎么和FDA的使命打上这个“结”的。

当初我到FDA面试的时候，我申请的那个办公室的主任问我，为什么要改变职业发展的路径？因为我原先是专注做神经科学方面的科学研究工作，现在要转去做肿瘤药物的审评工作。现在我可以脱口而出这个原因，因为我能够看到作为FDA审评员所带来的影响。我的一位家人在过去的5年因病去世了。在我5年的审评员生涯和3年的肿瘤药主审的工作中，我可以回过头来说，不论我做了多么微小的工作，哪怕只是一小章节的科学审评，我都是在帮助批准药品然后给到患者。当我做审评工作的时候，我可以看到审评文件的另一端的那个人，一个家人，需要我的工作。我不是仅仅在做一个技术上的审评，而是在帮助另一端，一个躺在病榻上，可能没有可用药品的患者。我是整个流程中的一个小而不可或缺的环节，将那些安全有效的产品送到患者手上。这就是我和FDA使命的联结，这个“结”已经系了8年，我的工作就是在帮助美国医院里的所有患者，也希望能够帮助到全世界的患者。

我的每一个职业选择都对我理解我和公共健康之间的联结至关重要，我并不想仅仅坐在办公室里，而且我会说我的同事们也不希望他们的工作是仅仅坐在办公室里而不能找到自我价值的工作。我希望通过我的努力，让周边的同事清楚的了解我们工作的价值，并且每个人都能找到自己的那个“结”，进而看到自己的工作所带来的影响。我来中国工作，虽然只是有限的时间，但是我能够感受到自己对于世界的影响，因为中国在整个药品、医疗器械和食品的供应链中扮演者十分重要的角色。 我认为不管我们在哪里工作，找到自己和它的联结都很关键。同时自己的同事能够理解我们在工作中扮演的角色，这样能一起向着一个目标努力。我在中国期间，一个非常重要的任务就是要保证在FDA中国办公室所有的同事都能找到自己的中国角色和价值，都能够理解，即使是非常微小的工作，都是在最终帮助患者得到更好的产品，消费者得到更安全的视频。坦率的说这并不是一份容易的工作，你需要仔细思考自己的工作究竟和机构使命有什么关系，已经把自己看成机构，应该如何思考。

我见过非常有领导才能的人，他们总是有能力能够激励自己的同事，有能力使我们正在做的工作充满魅力。当你描述你做过的工作的时候，把工作成绩和数字指标联系起来固然重要，但不要让这些数字和指标喧宾夺主，它们只是为你的故事锦上添花，而不可以成为故事本身。带着你自己的故事去工作，它可能会渗透到每一个你批准的产品、每一点研发的工作、每一个生产和质量控制的细节。我们需要理解你和工作之间这个小小的“结”，并且帮助周围的人也尽可能清晰的找到自我价值的所在，因为如果大家不理解自己的工作意义，就不太可能做出高质量的工作。我相信那些把自己的工作和使命紧密联结的人，更有可能全心投入并积极创造出高质量的成果。这不是直接影响了药品的质量，但我们每个人的工作质量最终决定了交付到患者手中的药品质量。在我职业生涯中，无论是帮助保证肿瘤药品的可及性、解决供应链问题、或是寻求在中国的积极影响，这些所有的工作最终都会回溯到我们最初的使命。

中国目前正处在整个行业攻坚改革的阶段，美国FDA这个时候愿意参与讨论，帮助加固改革的基础。我们并不是主要的改革者，但是我们希望能够在这个时候帮助大家一起理解共同协作的重要性，这和一个公司里面所发生的别无二致。把你自己的和公司的联结建立起来，这件事情每个人都有能力去做，你的这种联结就像一颗种子，在每一次和周围人们的对话里都会一点点成熟起来。在FDA，我认为每个人都有能力使得我们的机构不断成长，因为每个人都不仅仅是因为产品符合底线所以点头批准，而是为了能让患者用上药。

我在来之前对文职人员这个职业做了点研究，我自己已经做了15年的文职人员，但是却没有真正认真考虑过文职人员这个职业的价值到底在哪里。在看过一些资料之后我发现，文职人员职业的基础，就是正直、诚信、客观和公正。事实上有很多机构的基本理念都是这些，在这些基本价值之上，才能够理解工作的质量，理解需要的工作角色。这里面有很多元素都和我们近两年来讨论的质量文化的概念非常相近，质量文化讨论的是在一个机构中，有哪些因素能够保证他们生产高质量的产品，机构中的每一个人在遇到问题的时候是依据这些价值体系来解决问题，而不是想着如何尽可能快速的做完事情。而在所有类似的价值体系中，正直、诚信、客观、公正都是必不可少的。

不论你是在政府还是在业界工作，正直和诚信都是保证我们能够可以诚实的为所代表的机构发声。如果纵观全局，很多问题没有更好的解决办法，只有诚实坦率可以最终解决问题。客观和公正就是要求我们以科学的态度，依据得到的信息作出判断。做到公正就需要我们将自己的主观视角和利益偏好拿开，来看事情怎么做对于患者最有利。作为监管者，我必须秉承这些价值观，我不单单是为了我自己工作，也是为了我所代表的集体，还有最要的是为了我们所监管的产品的最终使用者。

我的职业发展得到了非常多提高专业能力的机会，这对我也十分重要，因为没有这些驯良，我就不能以不同的视角去看问题，这些训练可能发生在像今天这样的课堂上，在企业和同事们一起的实地工作中，或者在办公室里和前辈们交谈的时候，他们会让我理解我产生的价值，以及这些价值怎么帮助我去更好的做一个领导者。在工作中有两种非常好的锻炼机会，那就是领导人和领导变革。美国的联邦政府从五个维度来评价高级别的文职人员，其中第一个就是领导人和领导变革的能力。

领导人这一点之前谈过，对我来说，领导人就是让周围的同事都能够最清晰的理解我们机构的使命，将自己与之联系起来，并因此而更有成效地工作。还有很多其他的领导方式，有一些是自下而上的激励同事，有一些是自上而下的整合资源。我的方式就是尽可能让机构中的每一个人都了解每个人各自的角色，以及他们能怎样对我们的集体产生积极的影响。

第二个是领导变革，这正是中国正在做的事情。中国正在全面的改革监管药品和其他医疗产品的方式。我们这间屋子里面的所有人，都有能力在这个改革的大潮中领导一小点变革，不管你是想从你自己所在的组织内部，或是跟我一样选择做一个文职人员参与其中。我们每个人都应该理解，在这种变化中，任何个人的一点小的努力，都会为最终的结果贡献价值。可以通过参与讨论来贡献力量，也可以通过帮助下一代人，使得变革真正到来的时候，我们有接班人能够理解和处理变化带来的挑战。作为领导者，也有任务来帮助自己的同事和集体理解这些变化对于我们的影响。这并不是说要加剧大家对变化的焦虑，而是希望大家理解变革发生的时候，作为个体我们有很多能做的事情。我认为现在中国的变化对于在座的每个人都是非常好的时机，因为这个时候你们每个人的努力，都会使你们所在的集体，乃至整个行业变得更好更强大。

不管是政府机构还是企业，都不可能一成不变，如果没有深思熟虑的推动和投资这些变革，组织就可能会变得不那么稳定。同样，如果变革过程中发生的一些转变没有很好的管理和控制，组织也会不稳定。此时就是质量文化发挥作用的时候了。我们谈质量文化有些年头了，进来我有机会能跟企业老总讨论他们企业面临的变革，以及他们如何实施这些变革的，他们都在想办法使自己的组织变得更加稳固和强大。想要找到一个解决办法，并不需要一个非常长期的计划，有时候只需要从一件短期的小事开始做，并且始终朝着长期目标挺进即可。我在NIH和FDA的工作中，就是我有机会能够从小事做起，有一些小事是我认为我自己必须要坚持的不能改变的，而有一些事情我认为必须改变，有个先例才行。而做每一件小事，我都尽可能使得周围的人理解，我们为什么这么做。

这其实做起来并不容易，需要很多能量去达成。我还记得有些对我们工作非常有热情的人，在做这些事情的时候依然会筋疲力尽。但这是我的工作，我必须去完成它，我需要决定什么事情我们需要保持原状，什么事情我们必须往前迈一步。在我们的工作中也是一样，有些事情我们必须要坚持，一步不让，同样的，有些事情必须改变。

目前大家所处的变革时期正是需要团结力量的时期，当我们在做政策的调整的时候，尤其需要团队合作，我们不可能独自做决定。我最享受做文职人员的一个原因之一，就是每当我想要领导我们的组织向前迈一步的时候，我必须让大家同意我的决定。我有责任让周围的同事理解我们正在做的事情，因为我绝不可能一个人完成所有事情：我不是一个人批准申请，不是一个人做合规决定，甚至对外联络我也有团队一起合作。让大家都理解我们正在做的事情，有助于使我们的决定更有力，团队上下各个层面更好地投入工作。这就使我时刻不在质问自己，我是不是做了正确的决定，是不是根植于FDA的科学的基础。当你周围那些非常有专业见解的人们支持你的时候你的工作将富有意义，因为你不想自己的同事是些只懂点头的好好先生，只有这样，我们做的决定才能更有力。做文职人员另一个吸引我的地方就是我有可能和一个很大的团队一同工作，我的一部分微小工作能通过这个巨大的网络铺展开来，进而形成最终的成果。

在我自己工作时候我时刻想着推后一步看看我们最开始的初衷，在我们审评材料的时候，做合规决定的时候，我们需要往后一步，去回想我们要的“终产品”到底是什么，应该如何来实现它。这样一来我们就不至于迷失，能在工作最一开始的时候就更清楚自己的方向，也能促使自己投入更大的能量。

当前的中国药业就是处在我所提到的领导人与领导变革，同时建立正直、诚实、客观、公正的组织的鼎盛时期。我们每一个人都会随着改革的步伐成长，砥砺前行、不忘初心。在中国的任期是我10年以前梦寐以求的工作，它对于我的专业和个人经历都是非常大的挑战，而这些挑战使得我在FDA的文职人员这个角色上迅速的成长。尽管因为家庭原因我留在中国的时间没有我计划的那么长，但是我非常期待我能够将我在中国所学带回华盛顿去，并用这些东西使得FDA变得更加强壮。我很珍惜这次机会，因为我知道，如果不走出舒适区，不每天经历一点点冒险，活动一些从没用过的肌肉，我就永远不可能以全新的视角来看待以前的问题。我鼓励大家每一个人，不论你想坚守自己的岗位还是寻求工作的变革，都要尝试着用用新肌肉，挑战自我，你会发现经历过这些挑战之后，你自己会成长，也会使你今后的工作更加富有成效。谢谢大家！

 

Speech by Dr. Leigh Verbois on IPEM 2017 Commencement July 8th

First, thank you for having me here, it is interesting to stand here and talk about being a civil servant when I am accompanied by people who have served as civil servants for a longer time than I have. Nick and Gang have all come before me, carrying the water that allows me to come in, work hard and enjoy being a civil servant myself. I do want to call that out, that I am not the single civil servant in this room. I would like to express my appreciation for those who have worked hard before me.

Gang gave a good introduction to what my professional life has been. Throughout my schooling and time in US FDA and NIH, one of the things that always struck me is there were a lot of people who came before me, people who recruited me, and people who has expressed to me the importance of working for the government, whether you are working at a local level, or federal level. Without someone coming and describing to me the benefit that I could personally give to the government, whether it is US government or foreign government, I would not have made the career choices that I made.

Making that career choice has been very valuable for me as a person, but I also hope it can be extremely valuable for US citizens. Throughout my career, it has been important to express to people who are also interested in it. I am not getting in front of people to describe rules and regulations, and the impact that I made in a professional way, but to help define why personally doing what I do has meant so much to me. There are many reasons and it is a good conversation for me to have now, because I have been in china for 2 years and I will be departing on August 8. This could probably be the last presentation that I make in China. That is a little bit emotional and hard to do, because we have worked with IPEM for a number of years, and I have tried to engage in a way with deep connection with this community, so that is for this reason if I am emotional.

What I am going to talk about today is why I chose a path to be a civil servant. I mentioned people throughout my career talked about what are the possible benefits of being a civil servant. There were times when I sat in a room, and some people would describe [being a civil servant] in a way that no one would go on to choose to be a civil servant. Some people I met, they would describe in such a rote manner, that it was not possible for the audience to generate the enthusiasm about the world the person claimed. It is important to understand, as a civil servant myself, I feel very CONNECTED to the mission of US FDA. I feel connected to what that mission does to help US citizens. It matters to find those CONNECTIONs whether they are deep threads or fine threads.

When I start to think about what I am going to talk today, I went to the web to determine what the actual definition of “civil servant” is. It says, a civil servant is a person employed in a public sector for a government department or agency. I have to say, the definition embodied the lack of charisma that has been described in some cases of civil servant. To me, being a civil servant is not about being employed by a government agency, it is about embodying the mission of the place you are working for, so that you feel you can be empowered to push the limits and make change. You can push based on what authority is out there, but you are not just riding a tide, you are swimming, surfing and making sure you personally are trying to make a difference. I think the definition of the civil servant given by Wikipedia or Webster is spot on, but in reality, it is not defining what means to individuals as civil servants. I will define the individual civil servants as being able to make those connections, being able to connect to not just themselves but their families and communities. I will give a couple of examples about how I made those connections during my lifetime.

When I interviewed at the US FDA, the director of the office asked why I was making a career path change, because I was going from neurologically focused scientist to a reviewer of oncology applications. It was very easy for me to say, I see the impact that I can have as a scientific reviewer at the US FDA, because I had a family member who passed away within the past 5 years. Throughout my 5 years as a reviewer and 3 years as supervisor on oncology, I could look back and say, we were approving products no matter if I was doing small scientific review or looking at a new drug application to make sure the product got to the market as quickly as possible. I could see a link to a person, to a family member, as you review a drug application, you knew the person on the other end of the application. It is not just a scientific and technical review, and you can make a real emotional call, that there is a patient lying on the bed, without any alternatives. You are one step of the process to make sure the patient will not only get drugs that work, but are also safe. That’s how I connected, I was connected for 8 years on that single piece, that I knew I was helping people in hospitals around the United States and hopefully around the world.

Each career path that I took was critical to me to sit back and understand what the connection to public health truly is. I am not interested in sitting in an office job, and I would say my colleagues are not interested in sitting office where they are not be able to identify the impact they have. I [continually] wanted to play my part, to make sure those around me clearly understood the role they play, and everyone has a story themselves to remind the impact they are making. I am here in China, although in a limited time, but I feel I am making impact to the world, because China is such a critical part of supply chain for the pharmaceuticals, medical devices and food.

It is important for us to make connections with each place we are working, and our colleagues, to understand the role we believe we are playing, so that we help to facilitate the same goal. During my time in China, I have worked very hard to make sure the staff around me in the office understand what the role is, and understand that one little piece – no matter how administrative the little piece is – is to helping provide products to patients, and safe food to consumers. It is not an easy job; it takes time to thinking about what the mission is of our organization, and thinking in a way as an organization.

I have seen people who are willing to move to management, they have the ability to empower the employees, and they have the ability to add charisma to the conversation about the work that you are doing. You can make a narrative for yourself about the impact you are making. It is important to tie it to numbers and metrics, but not allow the metrics to take away what your story is, to make sure the number becomes additive to the story rather than just the only story you have. It is important to have your own story related to the products you are approving, your R&D work, and understand the little niche, then help the people around you to understand the value as explicitly as possible. Because if they do not understand it, they are less likely to do a quality job. I believe people who truly have the connection between the work and the mission, are going to be more engaged and motivated to do a quality job. It is not the pharmaceutical quality per se, but it would be your end outcome. Throughout my career, all of the things that I have done, helping to ensure the availability of oncology drugs, dealing with supply chain integrity issues and helping understand where we can make the most impact in China. These has always gone back to the mission.

In China we recognize there is a fundamental shift and reform happening here and that the US FDA has the ability to have conversations that helped underpin what is going on. We are not the fundamental changers here but we are here to help have conversations about how important it is for us to work together. These conversations are not so different from what would happen in a company. Take that information and understand what you feel you need to portray for your own company, and help build that mentality into your organization. Each person has the ability to do this because you plant seeds and every small conversation can have a ripple effect throughout organizations. One person really does have the ability to ensure that as your company is growing with the right kind of people who truly understand that they are not needed because of their bottom line but to make sure that patients have access.

I did little research about civil servant because while I've been a civil servant for 15 years truly I did not do a lot of indepth analysis of what it meant to be a civil servant or what the underpinning values of being a civil servant were. A great deal of research that I found said that civil servants are underpinned by INTEGRITY, HONESTY, OBJECTIVITY, and IMPARTIALITY. I would say that most organizations that are high quality are underpinned by those values. That setting up an organization that understands quality, and understands the role that they play needs to have these in place. Many of these pieces in my mind actually played right into quality culture, the conversations we've been having for a couple of years. It is about what needs to be in a specific institution to ensure that they are making a high quality product and they're doing it not just based on trying to get something out quickly but they've got it with an underpinning value system that make sure that if problems come up this problem can be dealt with. All of these values – INTEGRITY, HONESTY, OBJECTIVITY, and IMPARTIALITY – play a vital role in that.

INTEGRITY and HONESTY are ensuring that we – whether you are in the US government or you are sitting in a pharmaceutical company – are identifying something and being honest in its representation. You are looking at a holistic problem and you are identifying honestly what plays a role in those problems. OBJECTIVITY and IMPARTIALITY are looking at information in taking yourself out of the situation so that you can scientifically address what's happening. Impartiality is doing it for the better good. Taking it away from your specific company and deciding for the better good that there's a pathway that needs to be taken. So I'd say that I as a regulator have to have these underpinning values, as a civil servant across government organizations, whether I'm at the local level or at the federal level, I need to have these in place. I have to be working not for myself but for the people who I represent, the people who are the end users of the products that I am working on.

As I have gone through my career there's been a great deal of opportunity for me as an individual to obtain professional development, which is extremely valuable for me, because it helped me see things in a way that I would not have been able to see without this training. The training happened in classroom settings such as this, it's happened in the fields where I work with groups, it's happened in my own office with coaches to sit down and talk to me about the specific value and how these values are to help my lead. There are two places we have had opportunity to work on, LEADING PEOPLE and LEADING CHANGE. The federal government have 5 different ways to measure senior leaders and it's important for the senior leaders to understand the impact that they can have. Two of the 5 measures is leading people and leading change.

Leading people is what I talked about before, it is being able to get your organization to understand its mission and be more productive because of that. For me that's what it means, there are other ways in which people lead: some people lead by empowering from the bottom, some people lead by putting structure in from the top. The way for me is that I want everyone in the organization to understand clearly what their role is, and how they make impact to the organization in a positive way.

The second is leading change. Leading change is what China is doing now. China is in a reform period that is enabling them to change the way they are regulating pharmaceutical products and medical products as a whole. Each person in this room has the ability to work on that leading change piece, whether you are leading it from your own organization internally or you are deciding you want to work externally as a government employee. It is important for people to understand that in that leading change, there are small things that they can each individually do to add to the greater good. This can be through facilitating discussions, to ensuring there is a next generation of people who can come in and manage the situation after changes have happened. As a leader, it is important to make sure that we are helping individuals and organizations understand what changes mean to them. [That] there's not heightened periods of anxiety for stakeholders or individuals with the organization and for the government as a whole. Because there are big changes under way and there are many ways in which you as an individual can do. There are ways in which I have worked with in my organization to make sure people clearly understand what the change means to them. I think this is a really interesting piece right now here in China because of the amount of reform that's taking place, and because of the chance that each individual in the sectors that are being reformed have the ability to work really carefully within their organization institute policies and practices that will support stronger organizations in the future.

Without this concerted push for investment in this leading change, organizations become less stable, whether those organizations are government organizations or private industry. If change in the transitions that occur are not managed well, there becomes instability. With the chance for organizations to put stability, here is another place for quality culture can play a role in industry. Once the culture is in place, you can touch back to what that means for your organization specifically. We've been speaking about quality culture for a number of years now and I've been having some conversations with general managers and CEOs. It is interesting to talk to them about the shift within their own institutions and how they implemented their shifts in the time frame that it took. I'm talking about these reforms and talking about instituting processes to help make sure organizations are strong as possible. To find a solution, it does not take a long-term plan. In some cases, you can start with a shorter term planned and understand that in the long term this is your goal.

One thing throughout my career at NIH and US FDA is that I as an individual, have the ability to do something small. The small thing could either be holding my ground, because I feel strongly that issue is important and I'm not willing to deviate or setting a precedent, or, It could be that I think precedent needs to be set. I need to push really hard to make sure my entire organization around me understands why we're doing something different.

It is not easy, it takes a lot of energy. I remember there were periods of times even as someone who gets energized about the works that I do, it would be exhausting. But it was my job. And I began to really understand and ground myself in the idea that it was my job to make sure that we either stood still or we moved forward. I bring this to your attention only because I think there are times for everyone's career where it is necessary to stand still and hold your ground because something is so very important that you're unwilling to budge, or vice versa.

You are on the leading edge of things where we need to bring people around. If you're making a change any deviation on policy or practice, it is quite frequently that you do need to work with the group, you're not making decisions by yourself. One of the things that I enjoy about being a civil servant is, as much as I like to lean in and lead organizations, it is my responsibility to make sure people around me agree. It is my responsibility to make sure people understand what the process is because I am not doing something on my own: I am not approving a drug by myself, I'm not making a compliance decision by myself, I don't even really do outreach by myself, we do it as the team. To make sure that everyone understands that the work that we're doing is being done for a specific reason, and having that approach work you have a team around you makes those decisions stronger, and more likely to be engaged at different levels of organization. It makes you battle to ensure that you are on the right place, that your decision is grounded in science at FDA. When you have a group of people around you who are technically savvy, who are willing to push back on you, because you don't want someone who's just going to be a yes man, your decisions are going to be so much stronger. One of the important things for me to be a civil servant is that you were not working alone, but as a part of the organization and you can see that the network of your organization spidering out so that you can see the results.

Now there are times where it takes great leaps to see the result. There are times when you're sitting in your office and reviewing packages, talking about a compliance action. While you need to stop and look at what the end outcome is, what are you trying to achieve. Once you understand what you are trying to achieve it becomes such a stronger effort to begin with, and you can put in a lot more energy.

This time in China has been the culmination of what I have talked about in terms of leading change, leading people, building organizations that are honest, have integrity, objectivity and impartiality. As we grow, as every organization grows, when reforms and change happen, it's important to just go back and think about what you have done and what your end goal is. The time in China has been amazing. It's been more than I could have wanted, [which I wanted] for almost a decade before I got here. China has been professionally and personally, a challenge for me, and those challenges have made me grow in being a civil servant for the US FDA. I am looking forward to taking everything that I learned, in spite of the fact that I did think I was going to be here for 6 years and I am only going to be here for 2. I am looking forward to taking all of that back with me to the US FDA and Washington and making my organization that I am working with stronger, because I know things and I have experienced things in a different way. China has been perfect for that, because you cannot help but go out to have a little adventure, and stretch muscles you have not been using, so that you can be successful here. I encourage everyone whether you are taking the path of going into an industry office, or you are deciding that you want to shift gears and do something different. Stretch your muscles and challenge yourself, because in the end, it will make you stronger and it will make that next place you go stronger every single time. Thank you so much!