USU Announces New Brigade Commander

By: Charles L. Rice, M.D.

February 1, 2010 - I am very pleased to announce the selection of Captain Tanis Batsel Stewart, MC, USN, as the University’s next Brigade Commander. She will officially assume the duties this spring.

Captain Batsel Stewart currently serves as the Director, Emergency Preparedness and Contingency Support, Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), in Washington, D.C., where she is responsible for implementing a coordinated, comprehensive strategy to guide Navy Medicine’s emergency management and public health emergency preparedness and response efforts. She is also responsible for sourcing Navy medical personnel in support of contingency operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response efforts worldwide, including the Haitian earthquake.

Captain Batsel-Stewart is a former Navy line officer, and is a graduate of USU’s medical and graduate degree programs, having earned her M.D. in 1993 and her MPH in 2000. She is board certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health. She holds a certificate in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from USU, and a master’s certificate in Homeland Defense from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Her career spans operational, research, policy development, and leadership assignments, including Senior Medical Officer, Regional Support Group, Mayport, Florida; Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer, USS Spruance (DD-963); Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System Program Coordinator for South America while attached to the Naval Medical Research Center Detachment, Lima, Peru; Chief of Preventive Medicine, and deputy for the Joint Pandemic Influenza Team, USNORTHCOM, Peterson AFB, Colorado; and Head of Preventive Medicine Policy and Programs, Chief of Force Protection and Force Health Protection, and her current assignment at BUMED.

Captain Batsel Stewart will succeed Colonel Jack Wempe as Brigade Commander. Colonel Wempe will be transferring to his new assignment at the DoD Medical Examination Review Board in Colorado. His leadership, vision and dedication to the Brigade and to this university have been outstanding and he will be greatly missed.

A change of command ceremony will be held in late February.

Charles L. Rice, M.D.
President