RADM Christopher G. Halliday, D.D.S., M.P.H., will retire June 1, 2012 following 24 years of active-duty service in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service.

RADM Halliday’s post as the Chief of Staff to the Surgeon General began November 30, 2010. He has been responsible for the direction and management of the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG), including Division of Commissioned Corps Personnel and Readiness, Division of the Volunteer Civilian Medical Reserve Corps, Division of Systems Integration and Division Science and Communications. In that capacity, RADM Halliday has planned, implemented and evaluated management operations of the OSG ensuring that program objectives were met. He has provided advice and recommendations on Commissioned Corps policy and operations to the Surgeon General, the Deputy Surgeon General and the Assistant Secretary for Health. In addition, RADM Halliday has represented the Surgeon General at regional, national, and international health meetings. He has collaborated with federal agencies and offices within and outside the Department of Health and Human Services on matters regarding the Office of the Surgeon General.

Prior to his assignment as the Chief of Staff to the Surgeon General, RADM Halliday served as the Director of the Division of Oral Health of the Indian Health Service (IHS). He also served as the Chief Professional Officer of the Dental Category from May 2006 through May 2010. In his roles managing the USPHS and IHS dental clinical and community-based programs, RADM Halliday coordinated oral health activities in the most efficient, practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods of oral health care delivery.

The IHS Division of Oral Health operating budget in fiscal year 2010 was $162 million. Eighteen-hundred dentists, dental hygienists and dental assistants deliver comprehensive oral health services to over 1.9 million American Indian and Alaska Native people through a network of 250 dental facilities located in 35 states. RADM Halliday assisted with the reconstitution of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Oral Health Coordinating Committee, and co-coordinated the development, implementation and evaluation of the HHS Oral Health Initiative. Additionally, RADM Halliday participated as a member of the Department’s 2007 Health Diplomacy Initiative meeting with the Presidents and Health Ministers of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. The outcomes of these meetings resulted in the establishment of social justice programs that enabled health care providers from the USPHS and the United States Navy to provide health services to citizens of these countries. Dr. Halliday also co-authored the Workshop on Caries Prevention for Communities in the Region of the Americas, a three-day train-the-trainers program that encourages oral health promotion/disease prevention activities in rural communities. This program was so well-received by the Pan American Health Organization that RADM Halliday was invited to teach the course to dentists and other health care providers in Mexico, Panama and the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis. More than 150 health care providers from 22 countries in Central America, South America and the Caribbean have attended these training sessions. RADM Halliday maintains strong, ongoing ties with international, national, state, and local dental associations and societies. On numerous occasions, he has delivered dental public health presentations at meetings, conferences and at dental schools.

RADM Halliday began his career with the USPHS in the IHS, an agency within HHS, in 1988. His initial assignment was in the IHS Alaska Area as a staff dentist, and later as the Chief, of the North Slope Borough Dental Program in Point Barrow, Alaska. During his assignments with IHS, RADM Halliday held other positions including; Dental Program Chief, Oral Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Officer, dental recruiter, and, Assistant Headquarters dental consultant. He was named acting director of the IHS Division of Oral Health (DOH) in 2000, and director of the IHS DOH in 2006.

RADM Halliday received a Baccalaureate Degree in the combined studies of Biology, Psychology and Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1983, a Doctor of Dental Surgery from the Marquette University School of Dentistry in 1987, and a Master of Public Health with an emphasis in Dentistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2002.

A recipient of numerous PHS and IHS awards and special honors, RADM Halliday has received a Hazardous Duty Award, an Isolated Hardship Award, several Unit Citations, a Commendation Medal, an Achievement Medal, an Outstanding Service Medal and the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Medal. He also received the Jack D. Robertson Award, which is given to a senior dental officer in the USPHS who demonstrates outstanding leadership and commitment to the organization.

RADM Halliday is a member of the Commissioned Officers Association, the American Dental Association, the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, the American Dental Education Association, the Reserve Officers Association, and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. He is a fellow in both the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists.

RADM Halliday will embark on a new chapter in his outstanding professional career on July 1, 2012, when he will become Dean of the newest school of dentistry, the Missouri School of Dentistry and Oral Health at A. T. Still University’s Kirksville, Missouri campus.

On the occasion of his retirement, the Corps wishes RADM Halliday Fair winds and Following Seas.