Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Navy Captain Eleanor V. Valentin has been nominated for appointment to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Valentin is currently serving as chief of staff, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. Army Reserve Colonel Bryan R. Kelly has been nominated for appointment to the grade of brigadier general and assignment to commander (troop program unit), Medical Readiness and Training Command, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Kelly is currently serving as commander (troop program unit), 399th Combat Support Hospital, Worcester, Mass.
Jean D. Reed was appointed deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for chemical and biological defense/ chemical demilitarization at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Washington, D.C.
The Daughters of the American Revolution awarded U.S. Navy Lieutenant Andrew Baldwin, M.D., with its 2009 Medal of Honor. Baldwin is a physician and Navy diver at the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington, D.C., as well as an adviser for the U.S. surgeon general’s Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future initiative.
Dr. S. Ward Casscells resigned April 28 as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, a post he had held since April 2007. Casscells previously was a professor at the University of Texas Health Center in Houston, as well as director of clinical research at the Texas Heart Institute. Casscells is also a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Dr. Michael J. Kussman, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ under secretary for health, announced he would retire by May 9, ending 37 years in the federal government. A retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army, Kussman joined the VA in 2000 and became under secretary for health in 2007. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas C. Timmes joined the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he will teach courses in physical and chemical processes and biochemical treatment within the department of geography and environmental engineering. Timmes is a former environmental engineer in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps.
William H. Thresher was named director of TRICARE Regional Office-South, overseeing more than 2.8 million beneficiaries in 10 states. Thresher previously was chief of staff for the U.S. Army Medical Command and Office of the Surgeon General, where he managed 12 major subordinate commands. Prior to retiring from the U.S. Army in 2003, Thresher served as executive officer to the U.S. Army surgeon general.
Roger Baker was sworn in as the Department of Veterans Affairs’ assistant secretary for information and technology, serving as CIO for the VA and advising on information technology, computerization of many VA databases and other matters. Baker previously was president and CEO of Dataline, and is also a former CIO for the Department of Commerce. ♦