Woodson named to DoD Health Sciences University Board of Regents

Image of Jonathan Woodson, M.D., Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs)

Dr. Jonathan Woodson, M.D., former Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs)

BEthesda, Md.— Jonathan Woodson, M.D., former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, has been appointed by the Secretary of Defense to serve as a member of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Board of Regents. USU is the nation’s only federal health sciences university, located in Bethesda, Maryland, adjacent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

“I am very pleased with the appointment of Dr. Jonathan Woodson to the Board of Regents,” said Dr. Ronald Blanck, chair of USU’s Board of Regents. “He brings a wealth of experience not only in government, but with the military and in academics. We are extremely fortunate to have him on the Board.”

Woodson, a vascular surgeon, is the director of Boston University’s Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy, based in BU’s Questrom School of Business, and Larz Anderson Professor in Management and Professor of the Practice. He also holds appointments as a School of Medicine professor of surgery and a School of Public Health professor of health law, policy and management at BU. Prior to his appointment by President Obama as assistant secretary, Woodson served as the associate dean for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and professor of Surgery at the BU School of Medicine.

As assistant secretary, Woodson was principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for health issues and administered the more than $50 billion Military Health System budget. He oversaw the care for more than 9.4 million beneficiaries worldwide and led a force of more than 133,000 military and civilian doctors, nurses, medical educators, researchers, health care providers, allied health professionals and health administration personnel throughout the world, providing the United States with an integrated health care delivery and expeditionary medical, educational and research capability.

Woodson is a graduate of the City College of New York and the New York University School of Medicine. He received his postgraduate medical education at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and completed residency training in internal medicine and general and vascular surgery. He is board-certified in internal medicine, general surgery, vascular surgery, and critical care surgery. He also holds a master’s degree in strategic studies, with a concentration in strategic leadership, from the U.S. Army War College. In 1992, he was awarded a research fellowship at the Association of American Medical Colleges Health Services Research Institute.

Woodson is the recipient of the 2009 Gold Humanism in Medicine Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges. He is a brigadier general in the U.S. Army Reserves and was deployed in Saudi Arabia in Operation Desert Storm, in Kosovo, and in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is a former senior medical officer with the National Disaster Management System, where he responded to the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.