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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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Officer Spotlight
CDR Jessica Fox
“I feel fortunate to experience a diverse career across multiple agencies to make a positive impact on people’s health from the local to national levels.”CDR Jessica Fox commissioned into the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps in July 2011. She is currently a senior public health advisor for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR). CDR Fox serves as the ASPR liaison to the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) located at Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii. CDR Fox said, “It is an honor to represent Department of Health and Human Services, ASPR, and USPHS Commissioned Corps working in the USINDOPACOM Office of the Command Surgeon.” To maintain her clinical pharmacist expertise, she staffs the Naval Health Clinic Hawaii Branch Health Clinic Makalapa Pharmacy on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham.
In the 13 years since commissioning, CDR Fox has regulated prescription drug advertising and promotion at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, overseen federal HIV grants through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program at the Health Resources and Services Administration, and served as the chief of pharmacy at the DiLorenzo Pentagon Health Clinic Military Treatment Facility. She remarks: “I feel fortunate to experience a diverse career across multiple agencies to make a positive impact on people’s health from the local to national levels.”
CDR Fox discovered the USPHS Commissioned Corps during her final year of pharmacy school. During an externship at the FDA, she was fortunate enough to meet several Public Health Service officers and recalls, “I was intrigued by the idea of rapidly deploying to disaster areas to help people most in need while also serving my country.”
One notable highlight of CDR Fox’s career was her detail to the Department of Defense as the chief of pharmacy for the DiLorenzo Pentagon Health Clinic. CDR Fox had the unique opportunity to design a new pharmacy in the Pentagon. After 20 months of planning and execution, she successfully opened the new facility, tripling the size of the old location, and installing new technologies to enhance pharmacy services to TRICARE beneficiaries. CDR Fox stated: “At the DiLorenzo Pentagon Health Clinic, I was proud to lead a joint service pharmacy team of Air Force, Army, civilian, and contractor staff that demonstrated resilience in overcoming challenges to best serve the Pentagon population.”
For six years, CDR Fox served on the USPHS Rapid Deployment Force-1, a team of Public Health Services officers readily deployable within 12 hours’ notice. In March 2020, CDR Fox deployed to Joint Base San Antonio for ASPR in response to COVID-19. CDR Fox stated, “As a pharmacist, I cared for quarantined cruise ship passengers by ensuring they had the medications they needed. I would fill prescriptions from our pharmaceutical cache or coordinate with local pharmacies.” During the same deployment, she pivoted to serve as the ASPR Incident Management Team Information Management Section Chief. She ensured that information and data were moving smoothly among stakeholders – from the team on the ground to the HHS Secretary’s Operations Center in Washington, DC. Of her changing roles and 12-hour shifts throughout the deployment, CDR Fox said, “I try to be adaptable and maintain a positive attitude to help my teammates for success of the team and mission.”
When asked what drives and inspires her, CDR Fox responds, “It’s the people that matter most to me, the human element of our work in public health and health care. My patients and customers, staff and coworkers, mentors and mentees, people’s lives that I work to improve, even from afar and anonymously.”
CDR Fox is grateful for her career and says, “I’ve had a unique and atypical career for a pharmacist. I started in pharmaceutical regulation, moved to grants management, switched to military pharmacy, and now serve as a public health advisor and liaison. The USPHS Commissioned Corps offers Public Health Service officers the ability to determine their own career paths and select assignments. This unique flexibility allows Public Health Service officers to pursue interests and passions and choose duty station locations, which ultimately improves their quality of life.” CDR Fox adds, “I like being open to new challenges and opportunities. It’s an honor to serve the Nation and local communities.”