A Spotlight on Uniformed Services University Alumni
USU alumni are serving in hot spots around the world and in their respective communities as medical professionals. Some notable contributions are described below:
Classes of 1981-1989
Brig. Gen. C. William Fox, '81, is currently the commander of Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
Brig. Gen. William Germann, '82, is the commander of Malcolm Grow U.S. Air Force Medical Center, Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
Col. Bradley Harper, '83, recently relocated from Puerto Rico to San Antonio, Texas, with the Army's Southern Command. Harper is the unit's command surgeon and is headquartered at Fort Sam Houston.
Col. Terry Walters, '84, is the brigade commander for the 1st Medical Brigade at Fort Hood, Texas.
Jill Antoine, M.D., '85, is a faculty member at The Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and is a Harvard instructor in Anesthesia.
Col. Mark Bagg, '85, is an Army orthopedic surgeon assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center who has spent the majority of time repairing the lives and limbs of soldiers seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Col. Rhonda Cornum, '86, is the commander of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Cornum, a urologist, was a prisoner-of-war during the first Persian Gulf war.
Lt. Col. James Ficke, '87, is an Army orthopedic surgeon assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center who spent the majority of time repairing the lives and limbs of soldiers seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Col. John Powell, '87, is now deputy command surgeon for the U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. The former commander of the 10th Combat Support Hospital at Fort Carson, Colo., he replaced USU class of 1988 alumnus, Col. Robert Gum, in the Northern Command position. Gum is a graduate of the Master of Public Health degree program.
Lt. Col. Roman Hayda, '88, is an Army orthopedic surgeon assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center who spent the majority of time repairing the lives and limbs of soldiers seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lt. Col. John Kragh, '89, is an Army orthopedic surgeon assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center who spent the majority of time repairing the lives and limbs of soldiers seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
LTC Alfonso Alarcon, MC, a physician, was assigned first to the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and then later to the 160th Forward Surgical Team.
Kevin Tonat, Dr. PH., '88, who earned his Master of Public Health degree from USU, retired from the U.S. Public Health Service and now serves as the executive science officer for Cosmos Alliance Management, based in Washington, D.C.
Classes of 1990-1999
Lawrence Sung, Ph.D., J.D., '90, a microbiology program graduate, is now a lawyer with the Washington, D.C., firm of Preston Gates & Ellis, L.L.P. Sung specializes in intellectual property litigation, life sciences, patents, technology and intellectual property and technology transfer and commercialization.
Capt. Karen Parko, '91, recently transferred from the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, N.M., to San Francisco. Parko is now assigned to the Neurology and Rehab Service at the San Francisco Veterans' Administration Medical Center, and serves as the chief clinical consultant in neurology for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service, U.S. Public Health Service.
Maj. Kerry Jepsen, '93, an Air Force orthopedic surgeon at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, cares for injured troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and served as primary physician for Thomas Hamill, the U.S. civilian contract employee who was captured in Iraq, but later escaped.
Maj. John Friedland, '93, Army orthopedic surgeon assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center who spend the majority of their time repairing the lives and limbs of soldiers seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lt. Col. Peter Weina, '96, is an Army infectious diseases physician and an expert in Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease affecting troops in Iraq.
Maj. Christopher Lange, '97, recently received a purple heart for injuries sustained from a mortar attack while serving as the division psychiatrist for the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq. He becomes the second USU alumnus to be injured in combat, after Rhonda Cornum ('86).
MAJ Russ Kotwal, MC, USA deployed to Afghanistan twice and Iraq once as medical officer for the 3rd Ranger Battalion.
CAPT Eric McDonald, MC, USN deployed with the Marines as the III Marine Expeditionary Forces Surgeon, based in Fallujah, Iraq.
MAJ Stephanie Redding, MC, USA, a physician assigned to the 21st Combat Support Hospital in Iraq. She was featured in newspaper articles early in the conflict and was credited with saving the life of a U.S. serviceman.
Steven Berkowitz, Ph.D., '99, a graduate of the Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology’s clinical psychology program, moved from the Veterans' Administration Cooperative Studies Program to become director of the division of operations and committee support, coverage and analysis group, Center for Medical and Medicaid Services in Baltimore. Berkowitz will be involved in the scientific evaluation of the evidence base for Medicare's National Coverage Decisions.
Classes of 2000-2009
Arlene Casten, '00, a graduate of the adult nurse practitioner program, works at the Veterans' Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisc. Casten serves as a nurse practitioner and also as the registry coordinator for Gulf War patients and Agent Orange.
Capt. Tina Kinsley, '01, is a flight surgeon assigned to the 51st Medical Group, Osan Air Base, Korea. Kinsley will be transferring to Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, this summer to begin a dermatology residency.
Lt. Miguel Gutierrez, '02, is assigned as a diving medical officer with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit-4 in Bahrain.
CPT Colleen Daniels, USA, '03, a graduate of the Master of Public Health degree program, was recently awarded the Myra McDaniel Writers Award for her paper on an ergonomics-based approach to preventing musculoskeletal disorders in the Army. This competitive award is given to the entry judged best on the basis of its pertinence to occupational therapy practice, education, research or administration, originality, style and clarity of communication and scholarship. The winner is selected by the chief of the occupational therapist section, Office of the Army Surgeon General. Daniels was the first graduate of the Occupational Ergonomics track in the MPH program and currently is at the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine.
CAPT Bruce Baker, MC, USN, an anesthesiologist, saw duty at Camp Rhino, Afghanistan, followed approximately seven months later by a deployment to Iraq during the start of the war with a Forward Resuscitative Surgery System (FRSS) as one of the famed “Devil Docs.” He returned to Iraq several months ago, again as a member of an FRSS.
COL. James Bruckart, MC, USA, a physician, was assigned as commander of the 21st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, and later appointed as the 3rd Corps Surgeon attached to Combined Joint Task Force-7, Iraq.
MAJ Jack Davis, AN, USA, a family nurse practitioner, was deployed to Iraq with the 17th Field Artillery Brigade out of Ft. Sill, Okla. MAJ Davis served as the brigade commander for the unit, which was based at Camp Anaconda near Balad, Iraq. He is likely to be the first family nurse practitioner to ever serve as a brigade commander.