Commander's Blog

October has been a busy month at USAMMDA. On October 8th, I had the honor of traveling to the Pentagon with a small team from USAMMDA and USAMRMC to celebrate as one of our own and my Deputy Commander for Acquisition, Ms. Kathy Berst, was presented with the Department of Defense's Distinguished Civilian Service Award for her leadership skills and significant accomplishments over the past five years. Among those accomplishments, she saved the DOD from making a $1.2 billion investment by showing the mission could be achieved with other methods and she was hand-selected by senior leaders to address the highest demand and priority challenges facing medical product development.

We also had the honor to recognize one of our Pharmaceutical Systems product managers as a National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Jonathan Letterman Award Nominee, Col. Bryan Smith. He was nominated for his work with IV Artesunate, a product being considered for FDA approval for the treatment of severe malaria. IV Artesunate has been used in at least two cases at Landsthul Army Medical Center to save Service Members lives.

A great start to the new Fiscal Year. I look forward to achieving new successes and accomplishments throughout this year.