Dr. Susan E. Northrup is the Federal Air Surgeon for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. In this capacity, she leads the Office of Aerospace Medicine in Washington, D.C. She leads strategic management of the FAA's aviation medical programs, which oversee all pilots. Together with the Deputy Federal Air Surgeon, she shares responsibility for the direction and management of all FAA medical programs.

This includes the development and establishment of airman medical certification, the air traffic control specialist medical qualification policy, the application of that policy in medical decision making, the medical appeals process, and the oversight of aviation industry drug and alcohol testing programs. Dr. Northrup oversees the FAA's aeromedical education programs, the planning and conduct of aerospace medical and human factors research, and the investigation of aircraft accident medical factors.

Dr. Northrup is a past president of the American Society of Aerospace Medicine Specialists and the Civil Aviation Medical Association. She also a past president for the Aerospace Medicine Association. Dr. Northrup spent nine years (2007-2016) as a trustee for the American Board of Preventive Medicine. She is on the adjunct faculty for the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine and is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medicine Association.