RADM William Bailey
Commissioned in 1982, RADM Bailey’s first assignment was as a staff dental officer with Denver Health and Hospitals, where he reopened and managed a dental program at a neighborhood health station delivering clinical dental care mainly to underserved Hispanics and Vietnamese refugees. In 1985 he transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Ray Brook, NY, a medium security facility for male offenders, where he served as the Chief of Dental Services. From 1988 to 2001 he served on Guam as the coordinator of a major dental sealant program serving more than 18,000 children annually that was internationally recognized for reducing tooth decay among school-aged children by half. In 1991 he transferred to the Aberdeen Area Office of the Indian Health Service (IHS) in Aberdeen, SD. As the Area Regional Dental Consultant, RADM Bailey served as the primary consultant on oral health to 21 dental programs in a four-state region. In this capacity, he established an Area Preventive Support Center that focused on preventing early childhood caries in pre-school children and expanding water fluoridation in Native American communities. This resulted in the initiation of a first-ever Area-wide fluoride varnish program in which physicians, nurse practitioners, and other primary care providers applied over 30,000 fluoride varnish applications to teeth of young children at high risk for developing tooth decay. Efforts to expand community water fluoridation were highly successful, resulting in the addition of nearly 20 new fluoridation systems.
Although a dentist by training, RADM Bailey demonstrated versatility by directing the Aberdeen Area IHS Office of Medical Care Evaluation, and coordinating, monitoring, and evaluating efforts to improve the quality of medical care in more than 20 healthcare facilities, including 8 hospitals. In this capacity he served as the primary Area consultant on risk management, credentialing, accreditation, and quality improvement, and served as primary liaison to the Area Governing Body. He developed the first ever Aberdeen Area Quality Committee, was a founding member of the South Dakota State Oral Health Coalition, and served on the prestigious national Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Professional and Technical Assistance Committee.
In 2004 RADM Bailey transferred to the National Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Oral Health. His CDC responsibilities include supporting community-based public health activities aimed at preventing disease and building the infrastructure and capacity of state oral health programs. Accomplishments under CAPT Bailey’s supervision included expanding funding to strengthen the infrastructure of state oral health programs, increasing focus on public health law, and developing a fluoridation law database. He led efforts to initiate a CDC-sponsored annual orientation for new state dental directors and a workshop for all state dental directors. RADM Bailey serves as the CDC spokesperson and programmatic lead on water fluoridation.
Chosen to serve on the Pre-Deployment Site Survey team with the U.S. Navy that helped choose sites, RADM Bailey arranged in-country contacts and planned clinical and preventive procedures for the highly successful USNS Comfort humanitarian mission. He also served as Chief of Logistics as part of the Secretary’s Emergency Response Team during the response to Hurricane Katrina.
RADM Bailey has received numerous awards including two Commendation Medals, two Achievement Medals, three Public Health Service Citations, three Outstanding Unit Citations, three Unit Commendations, two Foreign Duty Awards, two Isolated Hardship Awards, two Hazardous Duty Awards, a Special Assignment Award, and a Crisis Response Service Award. In 2009, RADM Bailey was the recipient of the USPHS Dental category Jack D. Robertson Award, the highest award bestowed upon a dental officer by the USPHS Dental Professional Advisory Committee. RADM Bailey’s memberships in professional organizations include the American Dental Association, American Association of Public Health Dentistry, American Public Health Association, Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, and the Reserve Officer Association of the United States.
RADM Bailey holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences from San Diego State University, a Doctorate of Dental Surgery from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and a Masters Degree in Public Health in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina. He completed a dental public health residency with IHS, and since 2004 has been a diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health.
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HHS, Office of Public Health and Science |