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- About ASB Main Page
- Deployment Travel and Travel Readiness
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- Travel, PCS and Transportation
- Important Regulation Changes
- Travel & Transportation Entitlements Summary
- Permanent Change of Station (PCS)
- Temporary Duty (TDY)
- Junior COSTEP Travel Information
- Official Travel Forms
- Household Goods Officers
- Transportation
- Government Travel Charge Card
- Table of Frequently Used Acronyms
- Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
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The USPHS Commissioned Corps is committed to our mission to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of the nation. Public Health Service officers are trained and equipped to provide crucial public health leadership, assist with policy development, advance innovation and science, provide essential care services and respond to national and global public health emergencies. Through our Active Duty Regular Corps, our Public Health Response Strike Team (PHERST) and our Ready Reserve Corps, we remain responsive and available to rapidly deploy in the service of health.
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Commissioned Corps Headquarters Leadership
Chief of Staff
Katie L. Burbage, MPH, REHS/RS, DAAS Commander, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
CDR Katie Burbage serves as Chief of Staff for Commissioned Corps Headquarters (CCHQ), where she coordinates operations across divisions, synthesizes complex information for strategic decision-making, and ensures alignment with the Director's priorities. She oversees external stakeholder relationships including congressional activities and interagency coordination and sets the standard for customer service excellence throughout the office.
CDR Burbage brings extensive whole-of-government experience to CCHQ leadership. Most recently, as a USPHS Congressional Fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, she advised on policy spanning public health and tribal affairs. Prior to that, she served as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Senior Advisor and Liaison Officer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, where she bridged critical interagency operations between HHS and the Department of Defense. As the inaugural Liaison Program Coordinator for CCHQ, she established a comprehensive program supporting all HHS and non-HHS agencies with officer assignments, developing guidance that strengthened cross-agency collaboration across the federal enterprise. As Aide to the 16th Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), she directed executive-level planning and operations, serving as his principal Executive Officer throughout his tenure on the White House COVID-19 Task Force. Her federal service began as an Environmental Health Officer with the Indian Health Service, completing successive tours at Tribal organizations in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, followed by an assignment with the U.S. Coast Guard's Health, Safety, and Work-life Service Center in Norfolk, Virginia.
CDR Burbage has deployed on multiple agency and USPHS Commissioned Corps emergency response missions throughout her career, most recently leading disaster behavioral health teams during the 2023 Maui wildfires response in Hawaii. Her practical experience across tribal health, military communities, congressional operations, and emergency response prepared her to serve as Chief of Staff, with an understanding of both strategic priorities and the realities Public Health Service officers face in the field.
CDR Burbage joined the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps in 2009. She holds a Master of Public Health in Disaster Management from Tulane University and dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Environmental Health and Safety and Health Education and Promotion from East Carolina University. She is a nationally Registered Environmental Health Specialist and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Sanitarians.
CDR Burbage is passionate about building collaborative relationships across government and creating an organizational culture where professionalism and efficiency enable Public Health Service officers to focus on mission accomplishment.