NBAA Welcomes Dr. Susan Northrup as New FAA Federal Air Surgeon

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) congratulates Dr. Susan E. Northrup on her recent appointment as U.S. Federal Air Surgeon at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), where she will oversee the agency’s medical initiatives and aeromedical education programs.

Northrup most recently served as acting deputy federal air surgeon, where she led FAA efforts to develop contingency plans to maintain continuity of operations at air traffic control facilities impacted by COVID-19. She currently chairs an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) working group on international entry testing and vaccination documentation, and also serves on ICAO’s Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation group.

A private pilot and aircraft owner, Northrup previously served as the FAA’s former senior regional flight surgeon for the Southern Region. She is also a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and was deployed as part of Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield and served as the U.S. head of delegation at the NATO Aeromedical Working Group.

She later served as commander of the 94th Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia from February 2009 through November 2010. Prior to that, Northrup served as medical consultant for the National Pilots Association and regional medical director for Air Crew and Passenger Health Services for Delta Air Lines.

Northrup graduated from the Ohio State University in 1985 with a B.A. in chemistry and received her M.D. degree in 1989. She went on to earn a Master of Public Health degree in 1994 from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, after which she served a residency in occupational medicine at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas.