Jason M. Chernesky, PhD
FECOHP Project Director and Lead Oral HIstorian
Jason is an oral historian whose work explores the history of medicine, public health, child health, health policy, urban history, and environmental history in the United States. He served as Historian for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he managed the FDA History Office’s oral history program and led efforts to document the agency’s evolving role in American public health. His tenure at the FDA ended on February 14, 2025, following his termination by DOGE. He’s now on administrative leave.
Prior to his work at the FDA, Jason was the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Opioid Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His current book project, Forgotten Victims: Pediatric AIDS and the Urban Ecology of Health in the United States, 1950–2015, draws on oral histories with healthcare providers, public health officials, and scientists to uncover the overlooked history of how the HIV/AIDS pandemic impacted children born with the disease in the U.S.
(PhD, University of Pennsylvania, History and Sociology of Science)