Acting Surgeon General Announces Appointment of CAPT David Rutstein as Director of the Office of Force Readiness and Deployment

On 26 March, the Acting Surgeon General made the following announcement:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of CAPT David Rutstein as Director of the Office of Force Readiness and Deployment (OFRD), Office of the Surgeon General.

As OFRD’s Director, CAPT Rutstein will oversee the readiness and response activities of 6,000 active duty officers and the over 118,000 volunteers of the Medical Reserve Corps. In addition, the OFRD Director serves as the Senior Advisor to the Surgeon General on emergency deployments and humanitarian, domestic, and international responses to unmet public health needs.

CAPT Rutstein has had extensive experience in service and deployments in both domestic and international environments; considerable command experience at the program as well as the operational levels; and extensive familiarity with the National Response Plan, the National Incident Management System, and the Incident Command System. He has led a team of  Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) and U.S. Navy officers in Operation Unified Assistance II from the USNS Mercy, in Nias, Indonesia; and two separate USPHS teams in response to Hurricane Katrina. He has deployed to several other domestic emergencies. CAPT Rutstein served as a Director of Lessons Learned on the White House Homeland Security Council’s Katrina Lessons Learned Review Group.

CAPT Rutstein received his Medical Degree from Brown University and his Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He is board certified in family medicine and board eligible in preventive medicine.

For the first 13 years of his career, CAPT Rutstein served as a family physician in the Federated States of Micronesia. Since returning to the United States in 2000, he has served as Chief Medical Officer of the National Health Service Corps, as well as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Health Professions, both in the Health Resources and Services Administration. In 2005 he became the Deputy Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the Office of Public Health and Science. Most recently, CAPT Rutstein has been serving as Acting Director of OFRD. In 2005, in recognition of his leadership and capabilities, the Surgeon General appointed CAPT Rutstein the Chief Medical Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service; and in 2006, the American Medical Association presented him its Medal of Valor.

CAPT Rutstein's appointment is effective 1 April 2007.

Please welcome CAPT David Rutstein to his new permanent position!

Kenneth P. Moritsugu, M.D., M.P.H. RADM, USPHS Acting Surgeon General

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