Page 24 - profiles in civil service program 2018 version

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH &
HUMAN SERVICES

I am Lin Amendt and I served in the Department of Health and Human

Services (HHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Biologics
Research and Review for 30 years. I started at the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) as a Chemist and was immediately recruited to work for the FDA as a

Consumer Safety Officer. My main duty was to license and regulate Blood
Banks all over the United States and across the world. I next served for many
years as the Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Blood, and coordinated

the emergency response efforts for 900 people. I worked getting Blood and
Blood Products to those in need in emergency situations like Hurricane Isabel
and NYC's 9/11 attacks on Sept 11, 2001. I spent my last 10 years recruiting

world-renown scientists to be members of the FDA Advisory Committees for
Blood, Vaccines, Cells & Tissues, Allergenics, and 'Mad Cow Disease.' I was
involved for a few years working to keep the Blood supply safe from West
Nile Virus, and received the Secretary's Award for my work. I started many

Diversity groups within the FDA, was a member of HHS-level Diversity
groups, worked with the 'Assistant Secretary for Health' on putting together a
website on LGBT health issues, and cofounded the LGBTQ group at the FDA

in 1992.

I am Dr. Sambhu N. Banik and I served in the Department of Health and
Human Services. In my vast career, I worked as the Chief Psychologist and

Director of Internship Training at Glenn Dale Hospital and then as Chief of
South Community Mental Health Center and as the Administrator for
Children and Youth Services. At Glenn Dale Hospital, I developed Sound

Stimulation Therapy, for the multi-handicapped, mentally challenged children,
which became so innovative that it attracted the attention of the professional
community as an effective tool of using music and other sounds through the

patients’ earphones. At Glenn Dale, I also developed Nursery Therapy (the
use of plants and vegetables), for the Hemiplegic and Quadriplegic patients,
which proved highly therapeutic. For older patients, I developed a highly

therapeutic group treatment to share past experiences with each other,
providing them with insights on how they managed to survive segregation.
As the Chief of South Community Mental Health Center, I created AA type
programs with drug-addicted clients to address chronic alcoholism and other

21