Meeting Minutes 1200–1300 (EDT) · Meeting Minutes . Tuesday, ... CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website...

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes September 2015 Page 1 of 9

Scientist Professional Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, 01 September 2015

1200–1300 (EDT)

Toll-Free Number: 1-866-782-0573 Pass code: 2214354 Chief Scientist Officer and 2015/2016 SciPAC Voting Members and Liaisons Rank Name Role Present

Voting Members, Executive Board

CAPT Sanders, Martin Chief Scientist Officer Yes

CAPT Murphy, Matthew Chair Yes

CDR Adjemian, Jennifer Vice Chair; Rules & Membership Chair Yes

LCDR Bobo, Qiao Executive Secretary Yes

CDR Breiding, Matthew COF Liaison Yes

Voting Members CDR Bodart, Jennifer Career Development Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Cole, Jessica Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Frasca, Dominic Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Goodie, Jeffrey Science Subcommittee Chair Yes LCDR Green, Seth Category Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CAPT Novak, Ryan Science Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment, Retention & Readiness

Subcommittee Chair Excused

CAPT Robbins, Nisha Yes CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes

CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative No CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons

CDR Satterfield, William PSYPAG Liaison Yes

CAPT Moffett, Daphne SciPAC Historian No

CAPT Elson, Diana COA Liaison Yes

LCDR Bobo, Qiao JOAG Liaison Yes

LCDR Zhou, Eric MOLC Liaison Yes

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Participation by Nonvoting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Blanck, Heidi CDC Yes CAPT Crago, David BOP Yes CAPT Daugherty, Jon FDA Yes CAPT Elson, Diana ICE Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Murry, Michael BOP Yes CAPT Thoroughman, Doug CDC Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Bhagwat, Aditya DoD Yes CDR Boehmer, Tegan CDC Yes CDR Calanan, Renee CDC Yes CDR Carroll, Dianna D. CDC Yes CDR Davidson, Bryan DoD Yes CDR Dee, Deborah CDC Yes CDR Dobmeyer, Anne C. DoD Yes CDR Dutton, Samuel S. DHS Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Guo, Wei DoD Yes CDR Highsmith, Keisher HRSA Yes CDR Jentes, Emily CDC Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR Powell, Tracy HHS Yes CDR Stansberry, John NIH Yes CDR Streeter, Emily DoD Yes CDR Yip, Fuyuen CDC Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Edwards, Elizabeth FDA Yes LCDR Facey, Judy EPA Yes LCDR Freeland, Amy L. CDC Yes LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Garrett, Tiana DHS Yes LCDR Hollis, NaTasha CDC Yes LCDR Houston, Keisha CDC Yes LCDR Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ATSDR Yes LCDR Irving, Shalon CDC Yes LCDR Kebker, Eric DoD Yes LCDR Ko, Jean CDC Yes LCDR Lozier, Mattew CDC Yes

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LCDR Lu, Xiaowu FDA Yes LCDR Miller, Leigh Ann CDC Yes LCDR Miller, Mark EPA Yes LCDR Myers, Todd DoD Yes LCDR Nielsen, Carrie CDC Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR Pamboukian, Ruiqing FDA Yes LCDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes LCDR Perrine, Cria Gregory CDC Yes LCDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes LCDR Slayton, Rachel B. CDC Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Tate, Jacqueline CDC Yes LCDR Toussaint, Esra CDC Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Zhou, Eric NIH Yes LCDR Zucco, Julia CMS Yes LT Hickey, Andrew OHA Yes LT Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LT Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LT Jamoom, Eric CDC Yes LT Jeisy Scott, Victoria NCIRD Yes LT Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Ou, Oliver USDA Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Scott, Colleen CDC Yes LT Soeters, Heidi CDC Yes LT Thompson-Paul, Angela CDC Yes LT Wright, Marcienne ASPR Yes LT Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes

1) Call to Order and Welcome: CDR Matthew Murphy

• Email LCDR Qiao Bobo ([email protected]) for roll call on the day of the call. • Mute your phones when not speaking (press *6 if you do not have a mute button). • Do not place the conference call line on hold.

2) Report from the CPO: CAPT Martin Sanders

• CAPT Sanders congratulated new voting members and is looking forward to working with them. • Commissioned Corps’ Direct Access (DA) system will be offline from 18 December 2015 through

4 January 2016, please plan accordingly. • To prepare for migration of personnel functions to the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) Direct Access

(DA) system, each officer needs to verify in COLTS completeness and accuracy no later than Wednesday, 30 September 2015.

• Starting January 2015, the Commissioned Corps’ pay system will be changed from once per

mailto:[email protected]

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month to twice per month. • The revised Scientist Officer CV Summary Sheet Guidance is available online now. These are

suggested guidelines and there is no obligation to change your current CV. • Surgeon General is coming up with the next big thing related to walking and healthy life style.

More details will be provided. 3) Report from the Chair: CDR Matthew Murphy

• CDR Murphy would like to extend his thanks to CAPT Robbins for her efforts as SciPAC Chair. CDR Murphy would also like to welcome the new SciPAC Executive Board Members, new voting members, and all scientist officers joining the SCIPAC call as we start a new SciPAC year.

• As a reminder from the Office of the Surgeon General, government computers, supplies, or other resources can not be used for PAC fund raising activities. The PAC chairs are working to resolve concerns around the PAC fundraising process.

• Any officers planning to retire are advised to not cancel their SGI until after retirement. Cancellation of SGI prior to retirement may result in loss of benefits.

• CDR Murphy would like to acknowledge CDR Jacqueline Sram for volunteering to represent SciPAC on the newly established Information Technology Chartered Advisory Committee (ICAT) created by the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG). The ICAC is intended to support the IT needs of the Office and the PACs/CAGs through the Director of Division of Systems Integration, OSG. The ICAC will focus on migration and continued support of the PAC/CAG web sites and other IT technical assistance to benefit the Corps.

4) Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Adjemian

• Welcome everyone to the next SciPAC operational year! I look forward to working closely with CAPT Sanders, CDR Murphy and the rest of the Executive Board to make this a great year. Prior to becoming Vice Chair, I served as the SciPAC Secretary for two years and was very active in the Category Day Subcommittee, where I was Senior Advisor, Chair, Co-Chair and also led several workgroups. I have been in the Commissioned Corps since 2007, entering through the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Following EIS, I served as an Epidemiologist for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for a year and have since been at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), where I lead a team of epidemiologic researchers focused on rare infectious diseases. Please feel free to reach out to me regarding any questions or issues that come up ([email protected]).

5) Executive Secretary Report: LCDR Qiao Bobo • For today’s call, please remember to email me your attendance and your subcommittee/liaison

report at [email protected]. • If you have any information on events or relevant messages that you wish to distribute to the

SciPAC listserv, please email it to me along with any important details to include in the body of the email ([email protected]).

• For the new operational year, we will have the meetings at the same time with the same call in information as for the last year. I will send a meeting invitation out so you can have the information in your calendar for the new operational year. The next meeting will be on 6 October 2015.

6) COF Liaison Report: CDR Matt Breiding • Our SciPAC balance is $1349.66.

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7) Subcommittee Reports a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CDR Tony Satterfield

• The Awards Subcommittee is finalizing its Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and will be coordinating all of the changes with the outgoing Chair and Co-Chair.

• A call for nominations for the Scientist Responder of the Year Award will be sent out via email in September with nomination packages due in October. Please consider submitting a package for any Scientist Officers who have had an impact on emergency preparedness, disaster response, or have contributed to local, national, or international public health threats during the previous fiscal year. It is a great way to recognize the hard work these officers are doing.

b) Career Development: CDR Michael Smith; Co-Chairs: CDR Jennifer Bodart, LCDR Zewditu

Demissie • OBC:

− OBC is scheduled to occur in September, October and December at the new location, the William F. Bolger Center. The address for this facility is 9600 Newbridge Drive, Potomac, MD 20854. The link to the training academy website is located on the CCMIS website between the “Login” and the “About CCHQ” icons.

• Scientist Officer Handbook: − Updated Scientist Officer Handbook sections were posted on the SciPAC

website. Officers can now refer to new COER, Awards Overview, and Basic Readiness sections. The Subcommittee is happy to announce that LT Jessica Cleck-Derenick will be serving as the SciPAC Handbook Lead for the 2015–2016 operational year.

• The SciPAC CV review service − CV’s for review: This CV review service will occur in the next couple of months,

get your CV ready if you wish to participate. The new CV Summary Sheet Guidance has been posted to the SciPAC website. Officers are encouraged to submit their CVs for review using this new format.

− SR. officers to review CV’s: We need a lot (over 40) CV reviewers for this service; please consider volunteering for this service if you can.

c) Category Day: CDR Robin Toblin; Co-Chair: LCDR Seth Green

• Category Day will be 18 May 2016 in Oklahoma City. The agenda will be substantially different than previous years based on feedback from the evaluations with more of a focus on networking, mentoring and category-specific information. Team lead and participant assignments will be made shortly.

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas • The mentorship subcommittee wanted to determine the needs of mentees in order to

enhance programs and services in the mentorship matching program. A survey was sent twice during July to current mentee officers; this survey included open-ended questions about what mentees liked about their mentor relationship, what issues are being addressed, and what topics are of interest in the future. The response rate was about 35% of the 50 survey emails that were sent out. The survey found that: − Mentees appreciated the value of a mentor, and believed the program should be

expanded − Generally mentees are happy with their experiences − Mentees prefer when they can be matched with mentors they can meet with in person

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− That mentee/mentor matches be made in as close to the same field as possible − Additional guidance on career progression, promotion, awards, deployment, networking,

and leadership is desired • This was developed by the group to enhance mentor-mentee relationships, led by LCDR

Lana Rossiter and including LCDR Cara Halldin, LCDR Tyann Blessington, LT Leslie Rivera-Rosado, and LT Jorge Muniz-Ortiz.

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor • No updates to report.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: LCDR Anne Marie

France • Recruitment: There is nothing to report at this time. • Retention: Survey workgroup completed its data analysis and presented it's work to the

SciPAC chair • Readiness: There is nothing to report at this time.

g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: TBD

• We are currently seeking out a Co-Chair for the Rules and Membership Subcommittee. If you are an experienced officer looking to serve in this capacity, please send me an email indicating your interest ([email protected]). Within the next month we will initiate the process of reviewing the SciPAC Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), and will be reaching out to new Subcommittee leads to discuss reviewing their SOPs as well. I will also soon contact all current members of this Subcommittee to determine if they are still interested in serving during this next operational year.

h) Science: CDR Jeffrey Goodie; Co-Chair: CAPT Ryan Novak • Journal Club Team (CDR Glover & LCDR Tyus)

− Thanks to LT Michael Lowe, and all those who attended the call for their participation and engaging discussion on 18 August 2015 about “Healthy Eating” and “Active Living” Priorities of the National Prevention Strategy

− The next call will occur on Tuesday, 27 October 2015 from 1200-1300 EDT. o Subject Matter Expert will be LT Jonathan Leshin from the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency o Article to be discussed will be: Characterization of silver nanoparticles in selected

consumer products and its relevance for predicting children’s potential exposures • Science and Practice Team (LCDRs Cunningham & CDR Powell)

− Planning presentations for Sept 15th and Nov 17th − The Science and Practice Series focuses on skills that scientists are often asked to perform

but in which they have not necessarily received specific training. This year, our speakers have focused on officership (January), public speaking (March), and the Ebola response (July). Please propose any other topics you think might be applicable to scientists. Send all requests to LCDR Timothy Cunningham ([email protected] )

• Biography and Publications Team (CDR Sharma) − Working to enter information for the 2014 bibliography − 2010-2013 bibliographies at http://usphs-scientist.org/bibliography/ − Review the 2010-2013 SciPAC bibliographies for corrections. o Email: [email protected] with “Bibliography edit requested” in the subject

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line. • NPS team (LCDR Ko)

− Primary and secondary authors are meeting each week to finalize the draft commentary for the American Journal of Public Health.

i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce

• About to have a leadership planning call and then will have full subcommittee kickoff call. • New Co-chairs: LCDR John Pesce and LCDR Kamil Barbour. CDR Deborah Dee remains

Newsletter Editor in Chief and LCDR Erin Nichols is AMSUS representative. • Newsletter

− Some recent submissions are under review and the issue will soon be sent to Chair and CPO for approval.

− Looking for a layout editor with design experience. If interested, please email CDR Deborah Dee ([email protected]) by COB September 8.

− Next newsletter is planned for this month. Personal photos and family updates are also requested for the newsletter. Ideas for articles can be submitted to [email protected].

• Worked with Website SC to get creed posted to website. They will provide more info. Big thanks to LCDR Seth Green for all his leadership in crafting the Creed.

• AMSUS update − Annual AMSUS meeting is scheduled for December 1-4 in San Antonio, TX. For those that

don’t know about AMSUS, we wanted to provide a little background information about the meeting. AMSUS is the Society of Federal Health Professionals, including international health professionals. There are nearly 8,000 members that represent all healthcare disciplines and serve in the Active and Reserve Components of all the uniformed services as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs and other Federal Agencies. Among other purposes, AMSUS is dedicated to improving effectiveness, cohesiveness and esprit de corps of the federal healthcare services, and in providing a forum for discussion at local, national, and international levels and providing continuing education for its members.

− On this last point, the annual AMSUS meeting is the primary forum for providing continuing education. While most scientists may not need formal CE credits, the annual meeting provides specific CE activities for psychologists and an otherwise interesting and robust program and networking opportunities. Confirmed speakers for this year’s meeting include: MG (Major General) Nadja West, Joint Staff Medical Officer, and ADM Bill McRaven, former Navy Seal, now Chancellor of University of Texas. VADM Murthy has also been invited for a plenary session (pending confirmation). Also of note to Scientists is a focus in this year’s program on the Ebola response, including a demonstration of the MMU. This will be an interesting opportunity to learn about the response from the perspectives of the various services involved. The schedule for this year’s meeting can be found online at amsusce.org (http://amsusce.org/2015-meeting-week-at-a-glance-2/).

− If anyone is planning to attend the meeting this year, there are a few roles on the planning committee that still need to be filled. If you’re interested, please contact LCDR Erin Nichols ([email protected]). Also, there are opportunities for PACs or other groups to host side meetings during the meeting—please let LCDR Nichols know if you are interested, so the planning committee can highlight the meeting. Finally, the planning committee is seeking input on the CE credits that are offered—aiming to encourage a broader range of professions to attend. If you have any suggestions on CE credits, please contact LCDR Nichols.

• Individual activities such as poster judge at a conference.

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j) Website: CDR Jacqueline Sram; Co-Chair: LCDR Jason Wilken

• CDR Jackie Sram will be the new Chair of the Website Subcommittee and we welcome LCDR Jason Wilken as the new Co-chair.

• In August 2015, there were 769 visitors and almost 14,000 visits to the Scientist Category website. These numbers are back in line with the expected averages after the unexplained spike in visits and visitors observed in July.

• The following updates were made to the website since the last call: posted biographies and photographs of the 2015 Senior Scientist Officer and Scientist Mentor of the Year award recipients; uploaded August SciPAC meeting minutes, five new chapters of the Scientist Officer Handbook, new Mentoring Guidebook, and 2015 CV Summary Sheet Guidelines; provided a hyperlink to the 2016 Promotion Year Benchmarks; and created a new page to display the Scientist Creed. Links to many of these documents and the creed are available in the Announcements section on the home page: www.usphs-scientist.org.

• The Subcommittee members will be working hard over the next month to update the website to reflect the new voting membership and subcommittee roles.

• If you have an update to the website, please submit the Website Change Request form (available at: http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/website/) to CDR Jackie Sram ([email protected]).

8) Liaison Reports • COA: CAPT Diana Elson

− The COA Board will meet on 11-12 September 2015. • JOAG: LCDR Qiao Bobo

− The next Journeyman Speaker Series Seminar will be presented by Col. James Currie, Ph.D, Executive Director of COA and COF. The title of his seminar will be “The Commissioned Corps Officer and the U.S. Political System: A Primer”. The seminar is scheduled for next Friday 11 September 2015 at 1300 EST. I will send the slides and call in numbers will be sent through the SciPAC list serve within a week before the seminar.

− The next JOAG general meeting will take place next Friday, 9 October 2015. Call in: (626) 677-3000; Passcode: *210076. All junior officers are welcome to participate.

− This will be my last meeting as the JOAG Scientist liaison as the JOAG will be starting their Operational year 1 October 2015. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve in this capacity. I would like to introduce you the new JOAG liaison, LCDR Alice Shumate. LCDR Shumate was selected as the new JOAG scientist liaison by the current JOAG voting members through a very competitive process and I am sure she will do a great job.

• PSYPAG: CDR William Satterfield − The August 2015 PsyPAG call focused on mid-year report of accomplishments from the

PsyPAG subcommittees. This information has been included in the SciPAC End-of-Year report from the PsyPAG Liaison.

− The next PsyPAG call is scheduled for Wednesday, 7 October 2015 from 1200-1300 EDT. The dial-in number for that call is 1-866-782-0573, Pass code 2214354#.

9) Other Business, Questions, Comments • Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou

− The Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC) held its monthly meeting on 25 August 2015. − Demographic Report: Since the establishment of the MOLC in 1990, two PHS demographic

reports were released in 2006 and 2011 respectively. Based on the demographic data in

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2014, the third demographic report is currently under the review and approval process by the MOLC Voting members, and it will be posted on the MOLC website after approval by the Office of Surgeon General. At the same time, to distribute the demographic data among PHS community, an article on the report will be submitted to the COA Frontline Newsletter.

− MOLC Awards. For all the MOLC award nomination packages, the deadline for submission to the MOLC leadership through their own Core Minority Advisory Groups (CMAG) is 15 October 2015.

− MOLC Vice Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor is the Vice Chair of the MOLC this year, and she provided extraordinary leadership for the MOLC this year including the annual MOLC Award Ceremony in Georgia, Atlanta.

10) Closing Remarks: CDR Matthew Murphy • No updates to report.

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 06 October 2015 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes October 2015 Page 1 of 10


Tuesday, 05 October 2015

1200–1300 (EDT)









Subcommittee Chair Yes

CAPT Robbins, Nisha Excused CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative No CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons




LCDR Alice Shumate JOAG Liaison Yes


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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Avchen, Rachel CDC Yes CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Benally, Christine J. IHS Yes CAPT Daugherty, Jon FDA Yes CAPT Draski, Laura OS Yes CAPT Elson, Diana ICE Yes CAPT Hottenstein, Omar DoD Yes CAPT Lotz, William Gregory CDC Yes CAPT Murry, Michael BOP Yes CAPT Novak, Ryan CDC Yes CAPT Thoroughman, Doug CDC Yes CAPT Troiano, Richard NIH Yes CDR Bhagwat, Aditya DoD Yes CDR Calanan, Renee CDC Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Davidson, Bryan DoD Yes CDR Dee, Deborah CDC Yes CDR Dutton, Samuel S. DHS Yes CDR Geissler, Aimee CDC Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR McCollum, Andrea CDC Yes CDR Newland, Matthew HRSA Yes CDR Pauli, Ingrid DoD Yes CDR Streeter, Emily DoD Yes CDR Watson, Tenaya DoD Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Belcher, Lisa CDC Yes LCDR Belde, Robert BOP Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Bonzagni, Neil CDC Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Facey, Judy EPA Yes LCDR Freeland, Amy L. CDC Yes LCDR Gaines, Joanna CDC Yes LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Garrett, Tiana DHS Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes LCDR Halpin, Alison CDC Yes LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Houston, Keisha CDC Yes

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LCDR Huang, David CDC Yes LCDR Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LCDR Irving, Shalon CDC Yes LCDR Iuliano, A. Danielle CDC Yes LCDR Kebker, Eric DoD Yes LCDR Ko, Jean CDC Yes LCDR Lu, Xiaowu FDA Yes LCDR Miller, Leigh Ann CDC Yes LCDR Northbrook, Sanny Chen CDC Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR O'Neill, Eduardo CDC Yes LCDR Pamboukian, Ruiqing FDA Yes LCDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes LCDR Perez, Cesar FDA Yes LCDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes LCDR Pulliam, Sara DoD Yes LCDR Rivera, Luz FDA Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes LCDR Sauber-Schatz, Erin K. CDC Yes LCDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes LCDR Shumate, Alice CDC Yes LCDR Spikes, Pilgrim CDC Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Vagi, Sara CDC Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Zhou, Eric NIH Yes LCDR Zucco, Julia CMS Yes LT Benbassat, Danny SAMHSA Yes LT Brown, Jorielle SAMHSA Yes LT Cleck-Derenick, Jessica FDA Yes LT Francia, Charlotte BOP Yes LT Gieraltowski, Laura CDC Yes LT Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LT Jamoom, Eric CDC Yes LT Jeisy Scott, Victoria NCIRD Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LT Lucas, Neali FDA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Puckett, Mary CDC Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Scott, Colleen CDC Yes LT Thompson-Paul, Angela CDC Yes LT Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle HHS Yes

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• COER will open tomorrow (10/7), mark your calendar for the timeline. • Commissioned Corps’ Direct Access system will be offline from 18 December 2015 through 4

January 2016, please plan accordingly. • The revised Scientist Officer CV Summary Sheet Guidance is available online now. These are

suggested guideline helping you pull all necessary promotion information together. You will not be penalized for not following the new guidance.

• The Officer Statement Guidance has been sent through the SciPAC listserv and is available on the SciPAC website now.

• Starting January 2015, the Commissioned Corps’ pay system will be changed from once per month to twice per month.

• You all heard about the Presidential Unit Citation which is for the Corps efforts in providing critical health care to the people of West Africa during the Ebola outbreak response. You can put it in your CV, but it is the same for everybody in the Corps. Also, it may take a while for the paperwork to be in your eOPF and for the hardware to arrive.

• Your have probably seen the promotion list for flag officers. This will become a yearly process for promotion to flag officers.

• Post meeting note: The Leave Year is now based on the Fiscal Year (FY), not Calendar Year. Use or lose will not occur this year (2015). Leave balances over 60 days will not be truncated until September 30, 2016. With the exception of a very limited number of DoD positions (not all DoD positions), we are still following 60 day max for leave.

3) Report from the Chair: CDR Matthew Murphy

• The Surgeon General’s 1st official Call to Action was release. The goal of the initiative was to make walking a national priority. The Call to Action involved the Dept. of Transportation (DOT) among other agencies and organizations. Each category has been tasked with how to encourage walking as related to their expertise. If any scientist officers have ideas about how our scientific skillsets can be developed into a program to encourage walking please let me know. There will be a competition among PACs.

• Social Media Guidelines are still under review by the PAC Chairs. The Social Media SOP is a longer document, but there is also a shorter 4-page policy document that will operationalize the SOP. One challenge is that HHS guidelines seem designed for groups that have a full-time Public Information Officer (PIO) and not for part-time volunteer activity. The draft is still being reviewed in an effort to streamline the guidelines.

• The Executive Board is exploring the idea of creating a SciPAC Social Media Subcommittee because it may require the full effort of a subcommittee to adhere to the new policies and also to explore ways to maximize social media to showcase the great work of our scientist officers both within the Corps and to the general public. The feasibility and resource requirements of creating a Social Media Subcommittee are being investigated.

• Reminder: The Annual COERs will be released Oct. 7th and will be due to the rater by Oct. 21st. They will then be due to the reviewing official by Nov. 11th.



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• No update to report

5) Executive Secretary Report: LCDR Qiao Bobo • We had 94 Scientist Officers attend last month’s SciPAC meeting. • If you have any information on events or relevant messages that you wish to distribute to the


• For today’s call, please remember to email me your attendance using the subject line: “SciPAC Monthly Meeting Attendance”.

• If you are providing a report on today’s call, please also remember to email me a copy for the meeting minutes.

• Lastly, we have a conference line that is available to reserve for SciPAC-related meetings. If interested, please email me with your requested dates and times.


7) Subcommittee Reports

a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CDR Tony Satterfield • The Awards Subcommittee is currently accepting nominations for the 2016 Scientist

Responder of the Year Award with a deadline of COB Friday, 16 October 2015. Please send nominations electronically to CDR Jeremy Wally, at [email protected], and include in the subject line, “2016 Scientist Responder of the Year Award”. Note that based upon the stated criteria for this award deployments which were not directed by RedDOG (such as Agency-directed responses) can be included as part of the basis for a nomination.


Demissie • OBC:

− LT Tyson Volkmann (CDC, Barbados) is currently attending OBC. • The SciPAC CV review service

− The SciPAC Career Development Subcommittee is now offering its Curriculum Vitae (CV) review service to scientist officers who are eligible for promotion in the 2016 promotion year cycle. If you would like to take advantage of this service and have your CV reviewed by two senior officers (O-5/O-6), please send your CV in a Word file to CDR Michael Smith, CDR Jen Bodart and LCDR Zewditu Demissie by October 16th at the below e-mail addresses with “SciPAC CV Review 2016” in the subject line. o Please ensure that you have formatted your CV as noted in the SciPAC CV

Guidelines and reference the new CV summary sheet guidance document which can be accessed through the SciPAC website (see below for links). The Guideline document includes a model CV.

o If you send your CV into the CV review service and have restrictions on who you would prefer not review your CV, for whatever reason, please let us know.

o SciPAC CV Guidelines: o http://usphs-scientist.org/wp-content/uploads/cv-summary-sheet-guidance.pdf o SciPAC CV Summary Sheet Guidelines: o http://usphs-scientist.org/wp-content/uploads/cv-summary-sheet-guidance.pdf o E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected],

and [email protected]





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SR. officers to review CV’s: We need a lot (over 40) CV reviewers for this service; please consider volunteering for this service if you can.


• Hotel registration is open for Oklahoma City: 16-19 May 2016. The rate is $94/night for the Renaissance OKC hotel. The hotel reservation number is 405-228-8000.

• The theme of the conference is "Gimme Five: Building a Better Tomorrow through Prevention Today"

• Category Day will be on Wednesday, May 18 • The subcommittee has 37 members, 11 teams, and a secretary - each team has about 3

people except the abstract team, which has 8 • The subcommittee had its first team lead meeting • Agenda is due December 1 • Abstracts are due on 13 November 2016 to CDR Deb Dee ([email protected]). The call went out

by the listserv last week. Talks will be 15 minutes this year rather than 30. • Please submit panel discussion ideas by this week to CDR Ingrid Pauli

([email protected])

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas • Welcome to CDR Jennie Thomas who is the new SciPAC mentoring co-chair. Thanks to CDR

Anne-Marie France who will be continuing on as the lead for establishing our mentor/mentee matches. Please email CDR Thomas ([email protected]) and LCDR Cole ([email protected]) if you’re interested in joining the subcommittee. The mentoring subcommittee had the following activities in September: − We have made 4 recent mentor/mentee matches and have 5 pending mentees with 3

unmatched mentors. We will make making matches in the near future for the 3 mentors that are available. If you are interesting in being a mentor, or being matched with a mentor, please fill out the application on the SciPAC website. http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/

− The subcommittee has drafted a 5 year planning guide to help the mentor/mentee discussions and this guide will likely be integrated into the mentoring guidebook in the near future

− The mentoring guidebook has been released and is published on the SciPAC website. http://usphs-scientist.org/wp-content/uploads/mentoring-guidebook.pdf

− Results from a recent survey on mentees needs have been compiled and will be distributed to mentors soon

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor

• The Policy Subcommittee held an organizing a planning conference call. There are currently no new policy initiatives to analyze or review.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: LCDR Anne Marie France • Recruitment: No new reports. The Applicant Pool database is up to date, and potential

applicants will be notified when the recruiting window opens • Retention: The Retention Survey was sent to the SCIPAC Exec Committee last month. The

new RRR Chair has reviewed the survey results, and is beginning planning for additional follow up

• Readiness: OFRD has the most recent (estimated) officer readiness statistics; the Scientist



http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/


http://usphs-scientist.org/wp-content/uploads/mentoring-guidebook.pdf

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category is currently estimating 89% readiness. As always, the offer is always open for any officer who is having difficulty meeting, maintaining, or documenting basic readiness to contact RRR for assistance.

• We will be putting out a new call of officer deployment vignettes soon • Healthy Scientists October Bulletin was published via the SCIPAC listserv • There was a request to put together an Officer Deployment Skills database; the RRR is

working with CDR Bodart to compile. • This coming year we will build on the work that CDR Frasca has initiated with the recent

retention survey in addition to the other activities, such as readiness updates and recruitment activities.

• One of our priorities will be accessing (or trying to) historical data for Scientist officer recruitment, retention, and promotion to understand historical trends and use mathematical modeling to estimate how changes in policies affect our category. We’re seeking dedicated officers who have the time, skills and interest in pursuing this endeavor.

• Officers interested in joining the RRR sub-committee this year should email me at [email protected] with a brief description of their skills and interest in the sub-committee.

g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi • Thank you to those officers who agreed to continue serving for another year on the Rules

and Membership Subcommittee. We greatly rely on the expertise of our senior officers, and therefore truly appreciate their continued support and service. Our subcommittee’s leadership will be meeting this week to develop a plan for reviewing and revising the standard operating procedures (SOP) for both the subcommittee and SciPAC as needed. We may be reaching out to the Chairs of other SciPAC subcommittees shortly regarding a plan for reviewing and modifying their respective SOPs as well.

h) Science: CDR Jeffrey Goodie; Co-Chair: CAPT Ryan Novak • Journal Club Team

− October 2015 SciPAC Science Committee's Journal Club call will take place on Tuesday, 27 October 2015 from 1200-1300 EDT.

− This Journal Club call will address the “Healthy and Safe Community Environments” Strategic Direction of the National Prevention Strategy. Our Subject Matter Expert will be LT Jonathan Leshin from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. LT Leshin is a Toxicologist in the Office of Pesticide Programs. The article to be discussed is entitled: "Characterization of silver nanoparticles in selected consumer products and its relevance for predicting children’s potential exposures."

• Science and Practice Team − There were about 15 participants on the last S&P call on Tuesday, 15 September 2015,

1200 EDT. LT Ginny Bowen spoke about identifying scientific questions and designing questionnaires while conducting field epidemiology studies.

− Our next S&P call is scheduled for Tuesday, 17 November 2015, 1200 EST. The speaker will be LCDR Anne Purfield and she'll talk about working at the interface of laboratory and epidemiology, and connecting the two.

− If you have ideas for future topics that might be applicable to Scientists, please contact LCDR Timothy Cunningham at [email protected].

• Biography and Publications Team − Working to enter information for the 2014 bibliography − 2010-2013 bibliographies at http://usphs-scientist.org/bibliography/ − Review the 2010-2013 SciPAC bibliographies for corrections.


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o Email: [email protected] with “Bibliography edit requested” in the subject line.

• NPS team − Primary and secondary authors are meeting each week to finalize the draft commentary

for the American Journal of Public Health.

i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce • AMSUS update

− Annual AMSUS meeting is scheduled for 1-4 December 2015 in San Antonio, TX. LCDR Erin Nichols is our AMSUS liaison.

− The Monrovia Medical Unit received two AMSUS Functional Mission Awards: Humanitarian Assistance Award (recognizes a team or individual that has made meritorious, direct out of the ordinary participation in a significant act or operation of a humanitarian nature.); and the Operational Medicine Award – to MMU Team 1 (This award recognizes a team or individual that has provided outstanding healthcare service or support in an unconventional setting where important resources may be significantly restricted. These resources could include limited supplies, expertise, time, location, or environmental extremes). Congratulations to anyone that participated in the MMU.

− LCDR Nichols happy to connect any Scientist officers planning to attend the meeting- they can email her at [email protected]. The Planning Committee remains open to input on CE or session topics of interest to Scientists for planning this year or for future years. Any officers with input can send it to LCDR Nichols, and she will share it with the Planning Committee.

− A PHS Athletics team will be participating in the Rock n Roll runs taking place in San Antonio on Dec 5-6, the weekend after the meeting. There will be a 10K, 5K, and Half Marathon. Anyone wishing to participate on the PHS Athletics team should contact CDR David Lau ([email protected]).

• New Initiative to highlight publications by Scientist officers; led by LCDR Kamil Barbour. Scientist officers regularly publish quality original research in high impact journals. These publications tend to fill major gaps in the literature and have significant public health impact. Because of this, the Visibility Subcommittee has chosen to create a high impact publications section to highlight original research publications in the Scientist Newsletter. Officers selected for their publications will be interviewed about their manuscripts and information about their articles will be provided in the Newsletter.

• Discussing best way to highlight additional Scientist visibility items (white papers, presentations, etc). Coordinating with PACE and will discuss ideas during subcommittee meeting.

• Recently revised SOP. • Planning to hold social events in DC and Atlanta, but no details to announce yet. • Ideas for newsletter articles can be submitted to: [email protected].


• The Website SC is gathering our committee members for the next operational year. LCDR Wilken and I are thankful that almost all the previous year’s technical and content editors have agreed to continue with our subcommittee. We would also like to recruit 2-3 new members to support our workload. If you are interested in web page design, or have IT experience at any level, or just want to join the fun, please contact us.

• In September 2015, there were 1,040 visitors and 10,187 visits to the Scientist Category website.



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• Since the last SciPAC call, the Website subcommittee has posted the September SciPAC meeting minutes, and Officer Statement (OS) Guidance, which is located on our Resources and Links page (http://usphs-scientist.org/resources-and-links/ ).

• Please continue to check out our website (http://usphs-scientist.org ). • Please continue to send feedback and website change requests to both CDR Jackie Sram

([email protected]) and LCDR Jason Wilken ([email protected]).


− The COA Board of Directors met 11-12 September 2015. − National COA is reviewing local COA Branch POC lists. If you are a member of a local COA

Branch outside of the DC area, please send me ([email protected]) the name and email addresses (personal and gov) of the Branch POC

− COA requests that all members update their profile by logging into the COA members area on its website, and updating contact information, including rank, name changes, phone numbers, email addresses, especially personal email addresses. COA does not receive any member information from DCCPR.

− In an effort to improve the fiscal sustainability of COA, the Board approved a plan to consolidate dues categories and raise dues by a modest amount as follows (see also Executive Director’s report in the October issue of Frontline:

o Officers O‐4 and above, active and retired: $170 o Officers O‐3 and below, active and retired: $105 o *Really Retired; Inactive Reserve; Former Commissioned 0fficer; Associate/civilian):

$55 o * Those who no longer derive income from current work-related activities o These dues help COA support its members

− The current COA legislative priorities are articulated in the COA Board Chair’s column of the October issue of Frontline

− COA is interested in hearing from members regarding experiences with maternity leave; contact Judy Rensberger if you would like to share your story

− Recruit your Representative for the Congressional Public Health Caucus. The new caucus is only for members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Information is available on the COA website, or click http://www.coausphs.org/advocacy/public-health-caucus/ for sample text you can email to your Representative today. COA maintains the unofficial website for the caucus.

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − JOAG started its new operational year October 1st; it’s a great time for junior officers to get

involved in JOAG and gain some leadership experience. See the JOAG web page or feel free to contact me directly if you’re interested. Our first JOAG General Meeting of the year is on Friday 9 October at 1300 Eastern, info in the SciPAC September minutes. I’d also like to encourage junior officers to join the JOAG listserv. Get information about JOAG committees and volunteer opportunities, see the welcome letter, and click a link to sign up for the JOAG listserv at: https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/joag/

− Our first Journeyman Speaker Series will be Friday, 16 October 2015 from 1300-1400 Eastern time and will feature the Surgeon General, VADM Vivek Murthy, as well as RADM Sylvia Trent-Adams as presenters (Conference Dial-in Call #: 1-605-475-2090; Participant Access Code #: 6904646). I will send the slides through the SciPAC listserv once the slides are available, hopefully about a week in advance.

• PSYPAG: CDR William Satterfield

http://usphs-scientist.org/resources-and-links/

http://usphs-scientist.org/



http://www.coausphs.org/advocacy/public-health-caucus/

https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/joag/

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− PsyPAG elections for the 2016 Executive Leadership Positions (Chair-elect, Secretary) are currently open. Deadline for submitting nominations is 16 October 2015. Voting will open 19 October 15 and run through 2 November 2015. Results of the election will be released at the PsyPAG call on 2 December 2015.

− PsyPAG is currently updating its Bylaws. An update will be shared with SciPAC upon completion.

− The next PsyPAG call is scheduled for Wednesday, 07 October 2015 @ 1200 ET. The dial-in/passcode is the same as the SciPAC call.

− 9) Other Business, Questions, Comments

• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou − The Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC) held its monthly meeting on 22 September

2015. − Demographic Report: The 2014 PHS Demographic Report was published on the MOLC’s

website (https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/molc/documents/Demographics_Report_2014.pdf ). LCDR Bobo Qiao kindly distributed to the information to the Listserv. In 2014, 68% officers in the Scientist Category reported their race/ethnicity, and about 24% scientists self-identified themselves as minorities.


NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 03 November 2015 @ 1200–1300 EDT

https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/molc/documents/Demographics_Report_2014.pdf

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes November 2015 Page 1 of 11


Tuesday, 03 November 2015

1200–1300 (EDT)








Voting Members CDR Bodart, Jennifer Career Development Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Cole, Jessica Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Frasca, Dominic Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Goodie, Jeffrey Science Subcommittee Chair Yes LCDR Green, Seth Category Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CAPT Novak, Ryan Science Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused LCDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment, Retention & Readiness


CAPT Robbins, Nisha Yes CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Tes CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative No CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons




LCDR Shumate, Alice JOAG Liaison Yes


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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Avchen, Rachel CDC Yes CAPT Daugherty, Jon FDA Yes CAPT Despins, Joseph FDA Yes CAPT Dobmeyer, Anne C. DoD Yes CAPT Draski, Laura OS Yes CAPT Elson, Diana ICE Yes CAPT Frazer, Nicole DoD Yes CAPT Hendricks, M. Thomas FDA Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Lawrence, Theresa HHS Yes CAPT Murry, Michael BOP Yes CAPT Seaton, Mark FDA Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Davidson, Bryan DoD Yes CDR Dutton, Samuel S. DHS Yes CDR Facey, Judy EPA Yes CDR France, Anne Marie CDC Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Guo, Wei DoD Yes CDR Highsmith, Keisher HRSA Yes CDR Jentes, Emily CDC Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA yes CDR Newland, Matthew HRSA Yes CDR Pauli, Ingrid DoD Yes CDR Powell, Tracy HHS Yes CDR Sancho, Alfredo FDA Yes CDR Stansberry, John NIH Yes CDR Thomas, Peter CDC Yes CDR Watson, Tenaya DoD Yes CDR Xu, Fei FDA Yes CDR Yip, Fuyuen CDC Yes CDR Zapata, Lauren B. CDC yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Barradas, Danielle CDC Yes LCDR Belde, Robert BOP Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Bonzagni, Neil CDC Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Edwards, Elizabeth FDA Yes LCDR Freeland, Amy L. CDC Yes LCDR Gaines, Joanna CDC Yes

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LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Garrett, Tiana DHS Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Henderson, Tamara FDA Yes LCDR Huang, David CDC Yes LCDR Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ATSDR Yes LCDR Iuliano, A. Danielle CDC Yes LCDR Kebker, Eric DoD Yes LCDR Lu, Xiaowu FDA Yes LCDR Miller, Leigh Ann CDC Yes LCDR Miller, Mark EPA Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR O'Neill, Eduardo CDC Yes LCDR Parker, Erin CDC Yes LCDR Perez, Cesar FDA Yes LCDR Perrine, Cria Gregory CDC Yes LCDR Pesce, John NIH Yes LCDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes LCDR Rivera, Luz FDA Yes LCDR Rodriguez, Michelle FDA Yes LCDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes LCDR Schwitters, Amee CDC Yes LCDR Shumate, Alice CDC Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Toussaint, Esra CDC Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LCDR Zhou, Eric NIH Yes LT Benbassat, Danny SAMHSA Yes LT Cleck-Derenick, Jessica FDA Yes LT Cross, Israel CMS Yes LT Francia, Charlotte BOP Yes LT Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LT Lucas, Neali FDA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Muniz Ortiz, Jorge USDA Yes LT Puckett, Mary CDC Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Scott, Colleen CDC Yes LT Thompson-Paul, Angela CDC Yes LT Volkmann, Tyson CDD Yes LT Wright, Marcienne ASPR Yes LT Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes

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1) Call to Order and Welcome: CDR Matthew Murphy • Email LCDR Qiao Bobo ([email protected]) for roll call on the day of the call. • Mute your phones when not speaking (press *6 if you do not have a mute button). • Do not place the conference call line on hold.


• Please pay attention to COER deadlines and work with your supervisors • On the CCMIS website announcement, third bullet, it states: “As of October 29, 2015 CCHQ is

indexing documents faxed on: July 1, 2015”. If you faxed your document, you need to keep your fax confirmations. If you sent your document by registered mail, keep the tracking receipt. Please understand that they will fix it if you can prove you faxed or mailed the documents. Do not fax multiple copies.

• We are aware of ongoing issues getting the awards in eOPF. We are working on it. • CCHQ (informal for DCCPR) is trying to fill a few positions. I have sent them out through the

listserv. Having a tour in the headquarters can be a good opportunity. I encourage you to apply if interested.


• Officers should be aware that if they miss a readiness check during the promotion process, that previous readiness records can be looked at from previous years. Officers need to ensure readiness items are correct and, if not, then correct any errors found as soon as possible

• The Corps will be synchronizing our leave calendar from a Calendar Year to Fiscal Year. So, we will have a one time extension of this leave year to September 2016.

• Learn your Employee ID number. Starting Jan. 1st that is how we will be identified in the system and not by PHS number. You can find your employee ID number in the Commissioned Corps Management Information System.

• SciPAC wanted to extend our thanks to CAPT Mark Seaton for his proposal for the Scientist category participation in the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to promote walking. His proposal was that we promote the psychological benefits of walking then coordinate community walking groups. CAPT Seaton has suggested these efforts could be promoted through Facebook, Meetup or a local advertiser paper. Mark is working with the Visibility Subcommittee to further develop the idea so if anyone has additional ideas or would like to participate in the effort please contact Loren Rodgers and the Visibility Subcommittee.







• Lastly, we have a conference line that is available to reserve for SciPAC-related meetings. If



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interested, please email me with your requested dates and times.



a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CDR Tony Satterfield o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee is currently reviewing the nominations for the 2016

Scientist Responder of the Year Award. This year we had a number of well-deserving officers nominated for this award. Thank you to those who nominated an officer and we look forward to announcing the award recipient once the review and voting process has been completed.

b) Career Development: CDR Michael Smith; Co-Chairs: CDR Jennifer Bodart, LCDR Zewditu Demissie o OBC:

− LT Tyson Volkmann (CDC, Barbados) attended OBC in October. o The SciPAC CV review service

− We received 57 CVs for review this year and they have been distributed to two Sr. officers who were asked to send their comments to the officers by November 6th. However, several of the Sr. officers informed us that will not be able to make that deadline, but they will strive to complete their review ASAP. The Career Development subcommittee thanks the Sr. officers, including the 7 LCDR’s, that reviewed CVs this year.

− Several of the Sr. officers that reviewed CV’s noted that the current CV guidelines and CV summary sheet guidelines are not 100% aligned. The CV summary sheet guidelines were recently updated and we anticipate updating the CV guidelines in 2016.

c) Category Day: CDR Robin Toblin; Co-Chair: LCDR Seth Green o Category Day is Wednesday, May 18 at the Oklahoma City Renaissance Hotel. o -Reservations at the hotel are available with a group rate for COF o The day is shaping up to be an exciting mix of networking, scientific presentations, and a

state of the category session that includes the award presentations. o Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Terry Cline, the secretary of health and human services and

health commissioner for Oklahoma. He was formerly the director of SAMHSA and a health attache for Iraq under both the Bush and Obama administrations. Dr. Cline is a clinical psychologist. Thanks to Mark Miller and his team for getting such a great speaker.

o Our discussion panel will continue our theme of looking at different Scientist billets by focusing on laboratory-based officers working on biosafety. We have officers from four different agencies and from LT to CAPT. Thanks to Ingrid Pauli and her team for coordinating the idea and locking in four panelists so early.

o As of right now, we only have three abstracts and have six slots to fill so we encourage you to submit your abstracts! They are due to [email protected] on Friday, November 13.

o The agenda is due to COF on December 1.

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o Matching

− Made 6 new matches and had 3 new mentor volunteers and 2 mentee requests − 2 matches are still pending, but mentors are tentatively lined up for both − Mentor/mentee applications and mentoring agreements can be found on the SciPAC

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mentoring page (http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/) o Mentoring activities

− Subcommittee has been working on ways to get mentors more involved in the mentor/mentee relationship

− Several initiatives, focused on promotions and non-promotion activities, are on-going and we hope to launch them soon.

− Ideas for ways to improve the SciPAC mentoring program are always welcome and interested officers can email CDR Jennie Thomas ([email protected]) or LCDR Jessica Cole ([email protected]) for information on how to get involved.

o Mentoring subcommittee is starting the planning activities to host another mentoring event at the Symposium in Oklahoma City

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o The Policy Subcommittee has received the draft EHOPAC Social Media Policy and SOP., and

has convened a workgroup to begin analysis of their documents.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: LCDR Anne Marie France o Number of Scientist Officers: 325 o Percent of all Corps Officers: 5.0% o Scientist officers on Tier 1 or 2 deployment teams: 135 (42%) o Scientist officers meeting basic readiness standards: 308 (94.77%); 17 not qualified and not

exempt o Range for all categories: 91.4 (medical) to 98.7% (therapists) o Number of Scientist officers not meeting basic readiness requirements or exempt by rank:

− 5/90 (6%) O6 − 6/77 (8%) O5 − 2/100 (2) O4 − 4/58 (7%) O3

o Updates − CDR Dominic Frasca will lead the RRR readiness team as they reach out to officers who are

not basic ready and serve as resources to improve our Category’s overall readiness profile. − Projected readiness status for January is quite low for all officers because it is influenza

vaccination season. Be sure to fax proof of vaccination to medical affairs branch before the looming deadline for Direct Access going down.

− LCDR Matt Walters is taking charge of the Healthy Scientists Bulletin. We need a few more volunteers to round out the Healthy Scientists group. If you would like to contribute to the Bulletin, please contact LCDR Walters at [email protected]

− CDR Jeffrey Goodie will present an update on the Deployment Skills Inventory survey administered to Scientist Officers last month. CDR Goodie’s summary is below:

o DCCPR Deployment Skills Workgroup o USPHS Scientist Category Deployment Skills Inventory − Review the current Corps deployment roles and identify core competencies associated with

each role − Provide recommendations for new deployment roles or refined deployment roles − Survey about skill sets

− A total of 153 responded o Breadth of skills and experiences o 88% Ph.D.’s

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o Career fields − 40% Epidemiologists − 20% Regulatory Scientist − 16% Research Scientists − 15% Psychologists

o 77% deployed 1 or more times o Many individuals described their language skills

− Now working in two groups − Category Specific Skills (CDR Bodart)-roles only a Scientist could do − General Skills (CDR Goodie)-those roles any officer could fulfill

g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o The Rull and Membership Subcommittee leadership met and is currently reviewing the

SciPAC SOP.

h) Science: CDR Jeffrey Goodie; Co-Chair: CAPT Ryan Novak o Science and Practice Team

− Next S&P call is scheduled for Tuesday, November 17th, 1200 EST. The speaker will be LCDR Anne Purfield and she'll talk about working at the interface of laboratory and epidemiology, and connecting the two. The title of the talk is: Scientists: Utility Players and Subject Matter Experts

− If you have ideas for future topics that might be applicable to Scientists, please contact LCDR Timothy Cunningham at [email protected].

− Call-in Number: 866-782-0573 Participant Passcode: 2214354 o Journal Club Team

− The SciPAC Journal Club Team would like to thank LT Jonathan Leshin for his presentation on the potential exposure to silver nanoparticles in selected U.S. consumer products. We had a very robust discussion and we’d like to thank all the Scientists that joined us last Tuesday.

− Please join us for the SciPAC Science Committee's next Journal Club call on Tuesday, 8 December 2015 from 1200-1300 Eastern Time. o The December 2015 Journal Club call will address the Active Living Priority of the

National Prevention Strategy. Our Subject Matter Expert will be LT Lisa Jarvis-Durham from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

o LT Jarvis-Durham is a Health Program Specialist in the Provider Compliance Group/Office of Financial Management. The article to be discussed is entitled: Reduction of Weight and Waistlines by Integrating Exercise Breaks into Workplace Organizational Routine.

o Biography and Publications Team − Working to enter information for the 2014 bibliography − 2010-2013 bibliographies at http://usphs-scientist.org/bibliography/ − Review the 2010-2013 SciPAC bibliographies for corrections. o Email: [email protected] with “Bibliography edit requested” in the subject

line. o NPS team

− Primary and secondary authors are meeting each week to finalize the draft commentary for the American Journal of Public Health.


o Event-DC Area Scientists Happy Hour


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Calling all DC area Scientists!! Please join us for a Happy Hour at Matchbox in Rockville, MD on November 19th from 5:30-7:30. We have a lot of scientists in the area but we are scattered across multiple agencies. So please join us and get to know your fellow officers! This will be a very casual gathering so no need for your uniform unless you don’t have time to change. Date- Thursday, November 19th Time-5:30-7:30 Location-Matchbox (1699 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852) http://www.matchboxrestaurants.com/locations/rockville/ UOD-Business casual RSVP is not required but would be appreciated ([email protected]) The DC Area Visibility Subcommittee: CDR Mike Smith LCDR Neil Bonzagni LCDR Lana Rossiter LCDR John Pesce

o ATL Social Please join your fellow Scientist officers for an open-house social hour at Mo’s Pizza, which is located just off I-85 and central to all CDC campuses. Take this opportunity to meet with your mentor or mentee, meet newly-commissioned Scientist officers, and catch up with friends. Take time off from your promotion package paperwork and stop by for a beverage or slice or bring the family and enjoy tasty pizza, sandwiches and salads for dinner. When: ~5:30 to 8ish, Wednesday, November 18 Where: Mo's Pizza 3109 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329 http://www.mospizza.com/

o The SciPAC Newsletter needs a layout editor. Interested officers can send inquiries to CDR Deb Dee ([email protected]) or our newsletter Gmail ([email protected]).

o Officers interested in helping with the SciPAC poster for the COF Symposium should contact CDR Loren Rodgers ([email protected])

o AMSUS Update − The annual AMSUS meeting is taking place 1-4 December in San Antonio. Visit

www.amsus.org for information about registration and the meeting schedule. − The Joint Humanitarian Operations Course (JHOC) will be offered free (03-04 Dec 0800-

1600) for full paying registrants; this course is administered by USAID and offers an ideal opportunity to network with international colleagues.

− AMSUS meeting participants are encouraged to attend the cocktail hour prior to the Awards Banquet on the evening of December 3 to network with international Surgeons General and colleagues.

− If you are planning to attend the meeting, the following volunteer opportunities are available: bilingual speakers needed to aid with translation; aide-de-camps; and

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volunteers to run the USPHS booth (one hour). Please contact LCDR Erin Nichols ([email protected]) for more information.

− j) Website: CDR Jacqueline Sram; Co-Chair: LCDR Jason Wilken

o In October 2015, there were 1211 visitors and 13,856 visits to the Scientist Category website.

o The Website SC posted the SciPAC October meeting minutes, October OBC 83 graduate photos, updated the Executive Board photos and bio’s and setting up the OBC photo gallery (http://usphs-scientist.org/photos/obc/). Website SC Technical Editors are working on updating current year information as we receive them.

o Please continue to send feedback and website change requests to both CDR Jackie Sram ([email protected]) and LCDR Jason Wilken ([email protected]).


− COA Board of Directors met October 28th − COA Executive Director, retired Col. Jim Currie, is seeking opportunities to visit with local

COA Branches. Please contact him at [email protected] to discuss. − COA is missing current contact information for leadership of ~1/3 of local Branches, or ~30

local Branches. If you are an officer of a local COA Branch, please verify your Branch information on the Branch list and, if the information is not current, update the Branch Officer Update Form at http://www.coausphs.org/local-branches/branches-worldwide/

− COA requests that your personal email address be current in your member profile − The COA Legislation & Benefits Committee has been keeping an eye on the FY16 National

Defense Authorization Act; on October 22, President Obama vetoed the most current version due to some controversial provisions.

− • JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate

− JOAG is accepting nominations through COB November 20th for the VADM Richard H. Carmona Inspiration award, recognizing an active duty or retired senior officer at the rank of O-5 or above in the USPHS Commissioned Corps who exemplifies outstanding leadership by example, mentorship and empowerment of junior officers, unwavering support of the Commissioned Corps and its mission, and overall inspiration and motivation to the PHS community. Nominations are only accepted from junior officers (at the rank of O-4 or below in the USPHS Commissioned Corps). Information can be found here: https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/JOAG/awards.aspx

− The next Journeyman Speaker Series presentation will be on Friday, 13 November 2015 at 1300-1400 EST with CAPT Jason Woo, M.D., M.P.H., FACOG, Senior Medical Officer, Office of Generic Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) entitled “Traveling YOUR Leadership Journey”. CAPT Woo’s JSS talk objectives are to identify unique responsibilities of CC Officers for individual leadership development, present the CC Leadership “framework” to guide CC Officer development activities, and identify essential principles of the CC Officer for self-development and others’ development. Use the following link to attend: https://collaboration.fda.gov/usphs-joag/

− Finally, in 2009 JOAG finalized a Commissioned Officer’s Code of Conduct (below), but it hasn’t been widely publicized. In an effort to bring awareness to the code, JOAG would like to share it through the PACs and gauge interest in further distribution of the code of conduct via physical items such as magnets or wallet-sized cards. If you have feedback or comments on the code, please get them to me.

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− COMMISSIONED OFFICER’S CODE OF CONDUCT 1. I am a United States Citizen and a uniformed Commissioned Officer serving my country,

protecting national public health interests and security. 2. I am a Commissioned Officer, responsible and accountable for my actions by virtue of

this special trust accorded to me by the President of the United States of America. 3. I represent all other officers – past, present and future – and they represent me.

Together we are the Corps. 4. I am a leader. I constantly maintain and improve my state of professional capability and

physical readiness to set the example as a public health officer. 5. I wear my uniform to honor the Uniformed Service members who came before me and

to acknowledge their sacrifice and commitment in securing the freedoms and benefits I enjoy.

6. I render appropriate courtesies in accordance with Uniformed Service traditions, and convey respect to all with whom I may have contact.

7. As a leader, in the absence of orders, I pledge to act independently and honorably to preserve, protect and defend the national public health interests and security.

8. I follow the right path, not the easy path, regardless of personal hardship or discomfort, and will seek selfless motivations for the actions and decisions I render.

9. I selflessly credit and recognize the achievements of others. 10. When privileged by executive order or legislative act to serve as a member of the Armed

Forces, I will abide by the Armed Forces Code of Conduct. −

• PSYPAG: CDR William Satterfield − PsyPAG is currently conducting elections for its Executive Team for the 2016 operational

year which begins 1 January 2016. Results to be released prior to the next PsyPAG meeting. − A revision to the PsyPAG bylaws is currently out for membership vote. Any recommended

changes to be forwarded to PAC leadership once approved by PsyPAG. − The next PsyPAG meeting is scheduled for 02 December 2015 at 1200-1300 ET. The dial-in

information is the same as for the SciPAC call. −


− The MOLC held its monthly meeting on October 27. All the Unit Commendation Awards and individual Awards from each CMAG and MOLC itself were submitted to by the MOLC Chairs. However, the MOLC Voting Members will NOT receive the Special Assignment Award for MOLC itself this year since the Office of Surgeon General only had a Memorandum of Understanding with each CMAG, not MOLC.

• Women's Issues Advisory Board (CCWIAB): CAPT Anne Dobmeyer − The Commissioned Corps Women’s Issues Advisory Board (CCWIAB) “USPHS Resource Guide

for Expectant Parents” is now on the CCWIAB website: https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/ccwiab/ccwiabresources.aspx

o It is an unofficial guide to assist expectant parents in the PHS in navigating the various policies and resources relevant to pregnancy, postpartum, and parenthood.

o Includes information on readiness waivers, maternity uniforms, maternity leave, enrolling children in DEERS and TRICARE, paternity leave, leave for adoptive parents, reimbursement of adoption costs, and infertility resources, among others.

− Maternity leave: Officers have been asking whether PHS will follow the precedent of the Navy’s recent expansion of maternity leave to include 18 weeks taken within the first year

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after delivery. CCWIAB remains in contact with CC Headquarters Policy office to receive updates regarding policy decisions affecting PHS officers, when available. The Commissioned Officers Association (COA) will be advocating for the same maternity benefits for PHS officers in the upcoming year. If you are a COA member and would like to share your maternity story or express support for this expanded maternity benefit, please e-mail Judy Rensberger at [email protected] (slides for Resource Guide for Expectant Parents attached below).

Resource Guide for Expectant Parents_Pre


NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 01 December 2015 @ 1200–1300 EDT


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SciPAC Meeting Minutes December 2015 Page 1 of 9


Tuesday, 01 December 2015

1200–1300 (EDT)






LCDR Bobo, Qiao Executive Secretary Excused




CAPT Robbins, Nisha No CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative No CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons

CDR Satterfield, William PSYPAG Liaison Excused





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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Avchen, Rachel CDC Yes CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Benally, Christine J. IHS Yes CAPT Blanck, Heidi CDC Yes CAPT Crago, David BOP Yes CAPT Despins, Joseph FDA Yes CAPT Dobmeyer, Anne C. DoD Yes CAPT Elson, Diana ICE Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Lawrence, Theresa HHS Yes CAPT Novak, Ryan CDC Yes CAPT Thoroughman, Doug CDC Yes CAPT Troiano, Richard NIH Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Carroll, Dianna D. CDC Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR Daniels, Heidi DoD Yes CDR Davidson, Bryan DoD Yes CDR France, Anne Marie CDC Yes CDR Glover, Maleeka CDC Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Guo, Wei DoD Yes CDR Harcourt, Brian CDC Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR MacGill, Tracy FDA Yes CDR Maddox, Charlene NIH Yes CDR Stansberry, John NIH Yes CDR Xu, Fei FDA Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Barradas, Danielle CDC Yes LCDR Bjork, Adam CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Edwards, Elizabeth FDA Yes LCDR Freeland, Amy L. CDC Yes LCDR Gaines, Joanna CDC Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Hoffman, Kelsy FDA Yes LCDR Houston, Keisha CDC Yes LCDR Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ATSDR Yes

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LCDR Kebker, Eric DoD Yes LCDR Ko, Jean CDC Yes LCDR Laufer Halpin, Alison CDC Yes LCDR Lu, Xiaowu FDA Yes LCDR Myers, Todd DoD Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR Pamboukian, Ruiqing FDA Yes LCDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes LCDR Perez, Cesar FDA Yes LCDR Perrine, Cria Gregory CDC Yes LCDR Pesce, John NIH Yes LCDR Pulliam, Sara DoD Yes LCDR Rivera, Luz FDA Yes LCDR Rodriguez, Michelle FDA Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes LCDR Sandhu, Sukhminder FDA Yes LCDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes LCDR Schwitters, Amee CDC Yes LCDR Shumate, Alice CDC Yes LCDR Slayton, Rachel B. CDC Yes LCDR Spikes, Pilgrim CDC Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Toussaint, Esra CDC Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LCDR Zhou, Eric NIH Yes LT Cleck-Derenick, Jessica FDA Yes LT Cross, Israel CMS Yes LT Gieraltowski, Laura CDC Yes LT Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LT Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LT Iturriaga, Luis DHS Yes LT Johnson, Jonetta CDC Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Nadeau, Jessica CDC Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Wright, Marcienne ASPR Yes LT Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes




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• Please pay attention to COER deadlines and work with your supervisors. • Regarding eOPF deadlines, documents do not need to be viewable in your eOPF by the posted

deadlines. You only need to submit the documents and have a fax confirmation sheet by the deadlines posted. If you are having trouble submitting documents to the eOPF fax line, please try faxing during off-peak times (evenings and weekends).

• OSG and HQ are aware and working on issues regarding the backlog for document submission to eOPF and award processing. All officers should list critical awards that have been approved but not processed into the eOPF yet. Identify them as "in process" or other mechanism. Promotion boards will be instructed regarding this issue.


• The Direct Access System will be offline starting 18 December 2015 through 4 January 2016. Everyone, especially if you are up for promotion, needs to get their materials in by 17 December 2015 to meet basic readiness. There is some backlog, especially with the influenza records, but that is being addressed. It is important to keep your fax confirmation to help clear up any future issues.

• Reminder that the new APFT guidelines start Jan. 1st. APFT results will be entered in Direct Access, but will not require a form to be mailed in. The President’s Challenge program is no longer an option.

• The eOPF will not be affected by the Direct Access shutdown so you can fax eOPF items for promotion all the way up to 31 December 2015. To be safe you should still try to fax items earlier rather than later. For eOPF, officers should start adding some new information to each item faxed in- there is a request for name and PHS number, but also your employee ID# and phone number. The PHS # will eventually not be used any more.

4) Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Adjemian • No update to report

5) Executive Secretary Report: LCDR Qiao Bobo




a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CDR Tony Satterfield o The The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee has completed review of the nominations and the

voting process for the 2016 Scientist Responder of the Year Award, and the name of the selected award recipient has been communicated to leadership for confirmation. The name of the recipient will be announced once confirmation has been obtained.


− OBC is scheduled for December, but no scientists are attending. o The SciPAC CV review service

− The 2016 Promotion Year CV review service has concluded. All 57 CVs were reviewed and

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comments were conveyed to the officers. The Subcommittee would like to again thank all officers who volunteered to review CVs.

c) Category Day: CDR Robin Toblin; Co-Chair: LCDR Seth Green o Category Day Subcommittee Team leads had a meeting 18 November 2015 o All team leads are on track & making progress to be prepared for the conference. o We have confirmed our Keynote Speaker, Panel Discussion, and approved abstracts for

speakers o The agenda was submitted to the COF Category Day Planning Committee on 1 December

2015 and will be sent to the category shortly. It will also be on the SciPAC website. o Officers may submit abstracts to the main symposium sessions at

http://symposium.phscof.org/agenda/239-call-for-abstracts

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o Matching

− 9 new matches have been made since October 1st and in the last month we have had 5 new mentor volunteers and 1 mentee request. Thank you to all of our mentors for their support!

o Mentoring activities − The executive committee approved a discussion forum for recently promoted O-5 officers.

The goal of this forum is to identify lessons learned from recently promoted officers and a summary document will be made available to all Scientists. No identifying information will be included. Recruitment of participants will begin in January with the goal of final results being ready by category day. Officers will be recruited from different Agencies and disciplines and the panel will include officers promoted on the first, second, or third try. More information to follow but please contact CDR Thomas ([email protected]) or LCDR Cole ([email protected]) with any questions/comments.

− Subcommittee has been working on ways to get mentors more involved in the mentor/mentee relationship

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor

o The Policy Review Subcommittee met on 19 November 2015. We experienced technical difficulties during the meeting; however, committee members were asked to review the EHOPAC Social Media Policy as well as a draft policy summary. Drafting and review of the policy summary are ongoing. An update on this activity will be provided at the next SciPAC meeting.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: LCDR Anne Marie France o Total Corps Officers: 6,595 o Number of Scientist Officers: 335 (5.1%) o Number of Scientist Officers with Readiness Data: 324 (97%) o Scientist officers on Tier 1 or 2 deployment teams: 134 (41%) o Updates − Medical Affairs Branch is behind on uploading the influenza vaccination records. Almost half

of all scientists are projected to not be basic ready because of influenza. Don’t panic… we’re inquiring to see if there will be a delayed readiness check if MAB isn’t up to date on the faxed documents by 1 January 2016. Be sure to fax proof of vaccination to medical affairs branch before the looming deadline for Direct Access going down.

http://symposium.phscof.org/agenda/239-call-for-abstracts

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− CDR Anne Marie France is leading a group to establish a standard survey that will be administered to all Scientist officers on an annual basis. The survey will address demographics, education, benchmarks, readiness, retention, and more. Our aim is to capture data about the contribution of Scientist officers and the strength of our category on a yearly basis. We are hoping to deploy the survey in 6-8 weeks. This survey is most helpful if ALL scientists respond.

− LT Sharoda Dasgupta is a new CAD and she’s taking on a new position as liaison to all new call to active duty Scientist officers and the RRR sub-committee. New CAD may contact Sharoda about issues or concerns that may affect their readiness and retention in the Corps. If you are a new CAD and would like to share your concerns or questions, please contact Sharoda at [email protected].

− LT Danny Benbassat is also taking on a new liaison position. Danny will be serving as an official liaison between RRR and DCCPR official recruiting office. As liaison, he will be more involved with recruitment activities at DCCPR and can serve as a point of contact for official recruiters if there are Scientist-specific questions. He has developed a recruitment workflow chart, a FAQ template for potential applicants requesting information about Scientists in the Corps, and has responded to and logged three requests for information in the last month. − o Action Item: Identify points of contact at each Agency to maintain information about

potential applicants in one database and if and how to share the database − LCDR Alison Laufer Halpin is leading a work group to establish a Scientist APFT Excellence

program. More information will be coming, but start thinking about how you can improve your fitness performance in the coming year.

− LCDR Angela Thompson Paul leads a work group to improve retention of Scientist officers in the EIS program. The group has actively engaged current EIS officers to inform them about SciPAC opportunities and invited them to attend the Scientist Social in Atlanta.

− LCDR Matt Walters and the Healthy Scientists group distributed the latest bulletin.

g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o We are finalizing our review of the SciPAC SOP and have several recommendations

regarding the current content. We will be reaching out shortly to discuss any potential edits or changes with the Executive Board. Once finalized, we will distribute the revised version to SciPAC and will work with each subcommittee to discuss any changes that may impact their activities.


− Next S&P call is scheduled for Tuesday, 19 January 2016, 1200 EST. The speaker will be LCDR Kamil Barbour and he'll talk about the appropriateness of the prevalence ratio and the odds ratio as effect measures in the analysis of cross sectional data. The title of the talk is: The Prevalence Ratio as an Alternative to the Odds Ratio for Cross-sectional Studies.

− Call-in Number: 866-782-0573 Participant Passcode: 2214354 − If you have ideas for future topics that might be applicable to Scientists, please contact

LCDR Timothy Cunningham at [email protected]. o Journal Club Team

− Please join us for the SciPAC Science Committee's next Journal Club call next Tuesday, 8 December 2015 from 1200-1300 Eastern Time. o The December 2015 Journal Club call will address the Active Living Priority of the

National Prevention Strategy. Our Subject Matter Expert will be LT Lisa Jarvis-Durham

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from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). o LT Jarvis-Durham is a Health Program Specialist in the Provider Compliance Group/Office

of Financial Management. The article to be discussed is entitled: Reduction of Weight and Waistlines by Integrating Exercise Breaks into Workplace Organizational Routine.

o Biography and Publications Team − Working to enter information for the 2014 bibliography − 2010-2013 bibliographies at http://usphs-scientist.org/bibliography/ − Review the 2010-2013 SciPAC bibliographies for corrections. o Email: [email protected] with “Bibliography edit requested” in the subject

line. o NPS team

− The draft of the National Prevention Strategy commentary for American Journal of Public Health has been distributed to co-authors.

i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce − Successfully hosted social events in DC area and Atlanta area. − An announcement will be sent out to the SciPAC listserv about a December call for the

SciPAC newsletter team, which will take place next week, to plan for the next issue and issues for the remainder of the year. Any officers interested in being part of the SciPAC newsletter team are welcome to participate in the call. The date, time, and call-in information will be included in the announcement.

− The newsletter is still seeking a layout editor. No experience is required. Access to Microsoft Publisher is helpful but not required. Training will be provided if needed. Interested officers may contact CDR Deborah Dee at [email protected].

j) Website: CDR Jacqueline Sram; Co-Chair: LCDR Jason Wilken o Welcome new members: CDR Aditya Bhagwat, LCDR Matthew Lozier, LCDR Tamara

Henderson. Thank you to the numerous volunteers. While we cannot accommodate everyone at this time, there may yet be future opportunities for your assistance.

o Website migration – HHS is enforcing its policy that PHS activity websites be on a government server. The Scientist website is one of the few category sites still using a fee-for-service server. In the last month, the Website SC has been re-organizing to meet this requirement. Website SC Technical Editors have received initial training on the new content management system, called the Jarmanator. The SC will be doubly busy with the website migration in the coming months. The new server location is the PHS server and the category websites are child sites of the OSG website. We hope that we can retain the majority of what you are familiar with on our current website. There will be cosmetic changes, as established for the OSG website.

o We have plenty to learn regarding the policies for government servers, a large part of which are concerns with availability of Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and meeting 508 compliance. In brief, one of the more relevant impacts is how we develop our documents, such as 1) ensuring that there is correct metadata/background data; 2) clearance for use of photos-deployments vs. civilian. As we learn more, we will be better able to provide details/guidance on this.

o Please feel free to contact CDR Jackie Sram ([email protected]) and LCDR Jason Wilken ([email protected]) with questions.




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− COA has been following action, or inaction, on Senate confirmations of HHS nominees, including for the acting ASH, FDA Commissioner, and CMS Administrator. Senator Sasse (R-NE) has a hold on these nominations. It is unknown when this impasse will be resolved.

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − JOAG encourages all officers to participate in Wreaths Across America Day on Saturday,

December 12th, in which USPHS officers join the US Navy and other uniformed service volunteers in a wreath laying ceremony that honors veterans by placing a wreath on veterans’ graves. USPHS officers are participating on Saturday, 12 December 2015 at: o Arlington National Cemetery o Marietta National Cemetery in Marietta GA o South-View Cemetery in Atlanta GA o Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego CA o Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery in Kansas. o Some of these events require an advance RSVP; contact information for organizers,

specific times, and uniform of the day information is available through me at [email protected] or from the JOAG listserv archive. Please consider participating; I’m happy to help connect you with the local organizers.

− The next Journeyman Speaker Series presentation will be on Friday, 08 January 2016, from 1300-1400 EST. LCDR Deborah Hastings and LT Katrina Piercy, the APFT co-leads of the JOAG Readiness & Deployment workgroup, will be providing an overview of the new Annual Physical Fitness Test standards. Conference Call Dial-in: 1-302-202-1106, Conference Code: 825385. Please send any advance questions to LCDR Ghiya ([email protected]) and LT Jeisy Scott ([email protected]), JOAG Journeyman Speaker Series Subcommittee Co-Chairs.

• PSYPAG: CDR William Satterfield − The results of the elections for the 2016 PsyPAG Executive Team were released on

November 3, 2015. The 2016 PsyPAG Chair-Elect is LCDR Seth Green and the Secretary is LCDR Eduardo Cua. The current Chair-Elect, CDR Robin Toblin will be the 2016 PsyPAG Chair.

− The next PsyPAG call is scheduled for December 2, 2015 at 1200-1300 ET. The dial-in for the call is the same as for the SciPAC call.

− 9) Other Business, Questions, Comments

• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou − No update to report

• Women's Issues Advisory Board (CCWIAB): CAPT Anne Dobmeyer

− Information on the Commissioned Corps Women’s Issues Advisory Board (CCWIAB) can be found on our website: https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/ccwiab/

− CAPT Dobmeyer’s appointment on the CCWIAB will be completed at the end of Dec 2015. Over the next month, the CCWIAB leadership will be reaching out to Category CPOs regarding the process for nominating new officers for the CCWIAB voting membership. Scientist officers with questions about what CCWIAB membership entails should feel free to contact CAPT Dobmeyer ([email protected]).

10) Closing Remarks: CDR Matthew Murphy

• Our next SciPAC call will be Tuesday, 05 January 2016! We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!

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NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 05 January 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes January 2016 Page 1 of 9


Tuesday, 05 January 2016

1200–1300 (EDT)




CAPT Murphy, Matthew Chair Excused




Voting Members CDR Bodart, Jennifer Career Development Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Cole, Jessica Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Frasca, Dominic Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Goodie, Jeffrey Science Subcommittee Chair Yes LCDR Green, Seth Category Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CAPT Novak, Ryan Science Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment, Retention & Readiness


CAPT Robbins, Nisha Excused CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative No CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons






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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Benally, Christine J. IHS Yes CAPT Crago, David BOP Yes CAPT Despins, Joseph FDA Yes CAPT Dobmeyer, Anne C. DoD Yes CAPT Frazer, Nicole DoD Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Lawrence, Theresa HHS Yes CAPT Murry, Michael BOP Yes CAPT Novak, Ryan CDC Yes CAPT Thoroughman, Doug CDC Yes CAPT Troiano, Richard NIH Yes CDR Abe, Karon CDC Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Bhagwat, Aditya DoD Yes CDR Boehmer, Tegan CDC Yes CDR Calanan, Renee CDC Yes CDR Carroll, Dianna D. CDC Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR Davidson, Bryan DoD Yes CDR Dee, Deborah CDC Yes CDR Flowers, Artensie CDC Yes CDR Geissler, Aimee CDC Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Harcourt, Brian CDC Yes CDR Jentes, Emily CDC Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR MacGill, Tracy FDA Yes CDR McCollum, Andrea CDC Yes CDR Pauli, Ingrid DoD Yes CDR Powell, Tracy HHS Yes CDR Stansberry, John NIH Yes CDR Xu, Fei FDA Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Bjork, Adam CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Cui, Minglei FDA Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demby, M. Lela BOP Yes LCDR Gaines, Joanna CDC Yes LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Garrett, Tiana DHS Yes LCDR Gelio, Alves NIH Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes

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LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Hatch, Arlin DoD Yes LCDR Iuliano, A. Danielle CDC Yes LCDR Kebker, Eric DoD Yes LCDR Ko, Jean CDC Yes LCDR Laufer Halpin, Alison CDC Yes LCDR Miller, Mark EPA Yes LCDR Myers, Todd DoD Yes LCDR Northbrook, Sanny Chen CDC Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR Parker, Erin CDC Yes LCDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes LCDR Pesce, John NIH Yes LCDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes LCDR Pulliam, Sara DoD Yes LCDR Rivera, Luz FDA Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes LCDR Sandhu, Sukhminder FDA Yes LCDR Sauber-Schatz, Erin K. CDC Yes LCDR Shumate, Alice CDC Yes LCDR Slayton, Rachel B. CDC Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Tate, Jacqueline CDC Yes LCDR Taylor, Eboni CDC Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Vagi, Sara CDC Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LCDR Zhou, Eric NIH Yes LCDR Zucco, Julia CMS Yes LT Beard, John Doyle CDC Yes LT Benbassat, Danny SAMHSA Yes LT Brown, Jorielle SAMHSA Yes LT Cleck-Derenick, Jessica FDA Yes LT Francia, Charlotte BOP Yes LT Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LT Jamoom, Eric CDC Yes LT Jeisy Scott, Victoria NCIRD Yes LT Johnson, Jonetta CDC Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Muniz Ortiz, Jorge USDA Yes LT Nadeau, Jessica CDC Yes LT Ou, Oliver USDA Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes

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LT Thompson-Paul, Angela CDC Yes LT Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle HHS Yes LT Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes

1) Call to Order and Welcome: CDR Matthew Murphy (CDR Jennifer Adjemian reporting)



• Wish everybody a happy New Year. • Today is the day that the Direct System goes live. You need to use your employee ID to log in. • The next leadership meeting including all CPOs will be held on January 20, 2016. • Regarding eOPF deadlines, documents do not need to be viewable in your eOPF by the posted

deadlines. You only need to submit the documents and have a fax confirmation sheet by the deadlines posted. Please check the eOPF Status webpage for indexing dates and more information.

3) Report from the Chair: CDR Matthew Murphy (CDR Jennifer Adjemian reporting)

• The IT Chartered Advisory Committee (or ICAC) is looking for 1-2 volunteers from each PAC to help field questions from the Category regarding Direct Access during the conversion process. If you are interested in helping with this effort, please email me at [email protected]. My email will also be in the meeting minutes. This need and assignment will last for approximately 3-6 months.

• For those of you up for promotion, you may have noticed that the deadline for submitting certain documents to your eOPF has been extended to January 15, 2016. This includes your CV and CV summary page, Officer’s Statement, and Reviewing Official’s Statement. − You also have until January 15th to report any errors in your eOPF. If you sign in and notice

an error, there should be a link available in blue text that states “If there are errors in your OPF, click here”. This link will ONLY work if you are signed into the Officer Secure Area in the eOPF, and it will lead you to a page that provides instructions on what steps to take.








6) COF Liaison Report: CDR Matt Breiding



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• Our SciPAC balance is $1357.56.


o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee will be sending out a call for nominations for the Junior and Senior Scientist of the Year Awards and the Scientist Mentor of the Year Award at the end of January. Please consider submitting a package and/or nominating an officer for these awards.


Demissie o OBC: The OBC is not scheduled to occur in January.


o Our previous keynote speaker, Dr. Terry Cline, was selected by COF to be the plenary speaker for the conference as a whole so we are now pursuing other keynote speakers.

o All speakers need to upload their agenda into the agenda management system by January 15.

o The agenda will be going up on the SciPAC website shortly. o Registration will open in January

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas

o We currently have a surplus of mentors and no pending mentees. Thank you for your support! Please email CDR Jennie Thomas ([email protected]) and LCDR Jessica Cole ([email protected]) if you are interested in being a mentor or mentee. As a reminder, mentoring agreements expire annually and you can find the renewal form on the mentoring page http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/ of the SciPAC website. Also on the website are the Mentoring Guidebook, a reference guide, and application forms.

o Efforts are on-going to coordinate an interview of recently promoted O-5 officers and to plan for the mentoring event to be held at this year’s Category Day

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o Continuing to work on the analysis of the EHOPAC draft Social Media Policy. Our analysis

document has been circulated to the workgroup for a second round of comments and revisions. Tentative plan is to have the analysis complete by the end of January/ early February.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: LCDR Anne Marie France o Recruitment

− LT Danny Benbassat ([email protected]) will contact Scientist recruitment agency liaisons to request they forward applicant requests to him.

o Readiness − LCDR Oliver Ou is leading a work group to publish Scientist Officer Vignettes. The

objective of this work group is to capture stories about how Scientist Officers contribute to PHS mission and to motivate other officers to document our contribution during deployments. This work group is currently working with Scientist Officers who have deployed and documenting their deployment experiences. If you would like to share your


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deployment experiences/stories, please contact Oliver at [email protected] − CDR Dominic Frasca is our lead for readiness status. We are in a holding pattern at the

moment while Direct Access comes online and MAB gets caught up with submissions. We encourage everyone to check their readiness during the next week on Direct Access.

o Retention − LCDR Alice Shumate is working on a statistical model to assess the strength of our

category in terms of retention and recruitment. At this point, we have a basic model for projecting future category numbers/rank structure based on current conditions. We have collected basic data, such as name, rank, service date, T and E dates, rank, etc. from different sources, including Blue Book, readiness data and data from EIS office (thanks to CDR Danice Eaton). We are piecing together a database of Scientist officers that will be more dynamic than data that are currently available to all officers now. The database will be used to perform analyses for Scientist retention. We will maintain the database with password protection on a secure server and we will de-identify officers. Our intention is to use summary data to show trends in our Category. SciPAC can make a decision going forward to maintain the database, securely, for future/ongoing work. CDR Mark Clayton will help facilitate the requests for data from DCCPR and other sources. One of our major deficiencies right now is finding data on separations to evaluate the retention rate.

− CDR Anne Marie France is leading a group to establish a standard survey that will be administered to all Scientist officers on an annual basis. The survey will address demographics, education, benchmarks, readiness, retention, and more. Our aim is to capture data about the contribution of Scientist officers and the strength of our category on a yearly basis. We have drafted the outline of our report and will develop survey questions in the coming weeks while coordinating with LCDR Shumate to ensure that we can capture data that we may able to get otherwise. When the survey becomes available, your participation will be important.

o Healthy Scientists − LCDR Matt Walters and the Healthy Scientists group distributed the latest bulletin.

g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o We recently completed a review of the SciPAC SOP and within the next few weeks, after

some additional revisions, we will circulate the suggested changes and comments for discussion with the Executive Board.


− Next S&P call is scheduled for Tuesday, January 19, 2016; 1200 EST. The speaker will be LCDR Kamil Barbour and he'll talk about the appropriateness of the prevalence ratio and the odds ratio as effect measures in the analysis of cross sectional data. The title of the talk is: The Prevalence Ratio as an Alternative to the Odds Ratio for Cross-sectional Studies.

− Next S& P call Tuesday, March 15, 1200 EST. The speaker will be LCDR Danielle Barradas and she'll talk about capacity building – what it is, why it’s important, and ways to build capacity in resource-limited settings using examples from work with American Indian tribes, states, and perhaps foreign ministries of health. The title of the talk is: Capacity Building in Resource-Limited Settings.

− Call-in Number: 866-782-0573 Participant Passcode: 2214354 − If you have ideas for future topics that might be applicable to Scientists, please contact

LCDR Timothy Cunningham at [email protected].



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o Journal Club Team − Please join us for the SciPAC Science Committee's next Journal Club call on Tuesday,

February 9, 2016 from 1200-1300 Eastern Time. . The February 2016 Journal Club call will address the Tobacco Free Living Priority

Area of the National Prevention Strategy. Our Subject Matter Expert will be LCDR Timothy Cunningham from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). LCDR Cunningham is acting team lead for CDC's State Chronic Disease Epidemiology Assignee Program. In this role, he leads a team responsible for building capacity necessary for effective chronic disease epidemiology within state health departments. The article to be discussed is entitled: " Cigarette Smoking, Tooth Loss, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): Findings From the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System".

Teleconference and webinar details on the February 9th Journal Club call will be disseminated very soon. Please do support your fellow Scientist officers who are presenting the wonderful work they are doing in various areas of public health research.

o NPS team − The draft of the National Prevention Strategy commentary for American Journal of Public

Health is being edited. o Biography and Publications Team

− 2010-2013 bibliographies at http://usphs-scientist.org/bibliography/ Working on making corrections Email: [email protected] with “Bibliography edit requested” in the

subject line. − Working to enter information for the 2014 bibliography

Fewer entries than expected submitted − Send COMPLETED 2014 and 2015 work by emailing any publications, books or book

chapters, government reports and presentations (from any venue including conferences, media, meetings, etc.) to [email protected] with “2014-15 bibliography submission” in the subject line

i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce o CDR Loren Rodgers:

− Standard Operating Procedures were revised and formally approved. − No AMSUS update. − Poster planning is underway. − Newsletter; CDR Dee sent a Doodle poll link to those on the December call for the

Newsletter Team on Jan 5 regarding options for our team call, and if anyone did not receive it but wants to be part of the newsletter team, they should contact CDR Dee at [email protected].

o LCDR Kamil Barbour: − CDR Kamil Barbour is hosting a SciPAC Social in Atlanta:

Please join your fellow Scientist officers for trivia night at Mellow Mushroom. Take this opportunity to meet with your mentor or mentee, meet newly-commissioned Scientist officers, catch up with friends, and showoff your vast knowledge. Trivia night starts at 8:30, but it is best to arrive earlier to get a table.

− Please RSVP to this email address [email protected], so I can get an idea of the number we will have.

− When: ~7:45 to 10ish, Wednesday, January 13, 2016

http://usphs-scientist.org/bibliography/

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− Where: Mellow Mushroom - North Druid Hills, 1679 LaVista Rd, Atlanta, GA 30329 o LCDR John Pesce: PACE activity

− Atlanta: November 4: 16 officers conducted a hands-on learning activity for 290 7th grade science students at Woodward Academy Middle School. Two officers (per class) presented a case study activity about Ebola.

− DC: Adopt a highway. This is a new initiative under DC COA’s Prevention Through Active Community Engagement (PACE) in support of Surgeon General’s National Prevention Strategies for a Healthy environment. With thousands of motorists who drive on this road, it also makes for great visibility for the Corps. We will need 12 volunteers for each cleaning event and the cleanings will occur on a regular basis from April-October in conjunction with the county’s mowing efforts. Since, this is our inaugural event, our first cleaning will take place on Friday Jan 15, 2015, at 1030. In the event of inclement weather, the activity will be rescheduled. If you are interested in helping to clean this 1 mile stretch of New Hampshire Ave, please contact LT Shiny Mathew: [email protected].


o In the last 30 days, our current website had 793 visitors and 8,320 visits. We have posted the December 2015 meeting minutes.

o The Website Editors have been working on migrating our information to the PHS server and our future .gov website. Our Editors are taking on a steep learning curve using the new website application. We aim for better progress now that we are refreshed from the holidays.



− No update to report.

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − JOAG is currently accepting nominations for two awards to be presented at the USPHS

Scientific and Training Symposium in Oklahoma City in May o JOAG Excellence Award: recognizes a non-voting junior officer at the rank of O-4 or

below who is an active participant of JOAG and demonstrates outstanding, dedicated effort, leadership ability, and commitment to JOAG through active committee or workgroup participation.

o JOAG Junior Officer of the Year Award: recognizes an active duty junior officer at the rank of O-4 or below who has made a significant contribution to the overall mission of the U.S. Public Health Service.

o Self-nominations are welcome for both awards. If you know any outstanding officers deserving the recognition of these awards, please see the JOAG Awards page for details: https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/JOAG/awards.aspx, or the announcement that was sent out through the SciPAC listserv on January 4th. Nominations are due no later than COB on February 12, 2016.

− The next Journeyman Speaker Series is scheduled for January 8, 2016 from 1300-1400 EST. The topic will be the new APFT standards, with LT Katrina Piercy, the lead for the APFT Working Group, as presenter. Conference Call Dial-in: 1-302-202-1106, Conference Code: 825385.

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− Finally, JOAG is soliciting designs for its next JOAG t-shirt. Ideas are due by January 11th, 2016. For more information please see the JOAG website or send me an email at [email protected].

• PSYPAG: LCDR Luz Rivera − During the December meeting the new PsyPAG Board member election report was given − The PsyPAG have a new committee structure and will be recruiting task leads for the

committees − The PsyPAG webpage through HS PAC, will have a section for deployment mental health − Next PsyPAG meeting will be Wednesday, February 3, 2016

9) Other Business, Questions, Comments

• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou − The 2016 Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC) leadership consists of the following

officers: The 2016 Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC) leadership consists of the following officers: Position Rank Name Core Minority Advisory Groups (CMAGs)* Chair CDR Hamet Toure (FDA) BCOAG Chair LCDR Valerie Marshall (FDA) BCOAG Vice-Chair LCDR Vladimir Tirado (BOP) HOAC Vice-Chair CDR Guillermo Aviles-Mendoza (ASPR) HOAC Secretary LCDR Eric Zhou (NIH) APAOC Secretary CDR Khang Ngo (USCG) APAOC Liaison LCDR Dodson Frank (IHS) AI/ANCOAG Liaison CDR Randy Saria (IHS) AI/ANCOAG RADM Helena Mishoe will continue to serve as the Senior Advisor to the MOLC. *Black Commissioned Officers Advisory Group (BCOAG) Hispanic Officers Advisory Committee (HOAC) Asian Pacific American Officers Committee (APAOC) American Indian/Alaska Native Commissioned Officers Advisory Committee (AIANCOAC)

• Women's Issues Advisory Board (CCWIAB): CAPT Anne Dobmeyer − My term on the CCWIAB ended in Dec 2015. CCWIAB leadership will be in touch with CAPT

Sanders regarding nominating a replacement.

10) Closing Remarks: CDR Matthew Murphy • Our next SciPAC call will be Tuesday, February 2, 2016! We wish everyone a safe and happy

holiday!

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 02 February 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes February 2016 Page 1 of 10


Tuesday, 02 February 2016

1200–1300 (EDT)





CDR Adjemian, Jennifer Vice Chair; Rules & Membership Chair Excused



Voting Members CDR Bodart, Jennifer Career Development Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Cole, Jessica Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Frasca, Dominic Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Goodie, Jeffrey Science Subcommittee Chair Yes LCDR Green, Seth Category Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CAPT Novak, Ryan Science Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment, Retention & Readiness


CAPT Robbins, Nisha Yes CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative No CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons





LCDR Zhou, Eric MOLC Liaison Excused

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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Benally, Christine J. IHS Yes CAPT Crago, David BOP Yes CAPT Despins, Joseph FDA Yes CAPT Dobmeyer, Anne C. DoD Yes CAPT Draski, Laura OS Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Lawrence, Theresa HHS Yes CAPT Massoudi, Mehran CDC Yes CAPT Thoroughman, Doug CDC Yes CDR Alves, Gelio NIH Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Calanan, Renee CDC Yes CDR Carroll, Dianna D. CDC Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR Dee, Deborah CDC Yes CDR Dutton, Samuel S. DHS Yes CDR France, Anne Marie CDC Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR Laird, David FDA Yes CDR MacGill, Tracy FDA Yes CDR McCollum, Andrea CDC Yes CDR Newland, Matthew HRSA Yes CDR Pauli, Ingrid DoD Yes CDR Powell, Tracy HHS Yes CDR Sancho, Alfredo FDA Yes CDR Tate, Jacqueline CDC Yes CDR Xu, Fei FDA Yes CDR Yip, Fuyuen CDC Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Cui, Minglei FDA Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Edwards, Elizabeth FDA Yes LCDR Freeland, Amy L. CDC Yes LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Hatch, Arlin DoD Yes LCDR Henderson, Tamara FDA Yes

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Rank Participant Agency Present LCDR Hoffman, Kelsy FDA Yes LCDR Huang, David CDC Yes LCDR Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ATSDR Yes LCDR Kebker, Eric DoD Yes LCDR Ko, Jean CDC Yes LCDR Lozier, Mattew CDC Yes LCDR Lu, Xiaowu FDA Yes LCDR Miller, Mark EPA Yes LCDR Nichols, Erin CDC Yes LCDR Northbrook, Sanny Chen CDC Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR O'Neill, Eduardo CDC Yes LCDR Parker, Erin CDC Yes LCDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes LCDR Perez, Cesar FDA Yes LCDR Pesce, John NIH Yes LCDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes LCDR Sandhu, Sukhminder FDA Yes LCDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes LCDR Schwitters, Amee CDC Yes LCDR Shumate, Alice CDC Yes LCDR Steele, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LCDR Zucco, Julia CMS Yes LT Beard, John Doyle CDC Yes LT Benbassat, Danny SAMHSA Yes LT Burgos, Jonathan FDA Yes LT Cleck-Derenick, Jessica FDA Yes LT Cross, Israel CMS Yes LT Francia, Charlotte BOP Yes LT Hickey, Andrew OHA Yes LT Iturriaga, Luis DHS Yes LT Jarvis-Durham, Lisa CMS Yes LT Jeisy Scott, Victoria NCIRD Yes LT Johnson, Jonetta CDC Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LT Lucas, Neali FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Nadeau, Jessica CDC Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Scott, Colleen CDC Yes

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Rank Participant Agency Present LT Thompson-Paul, Angela CDC Yes LT Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle HHS Yes LT Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes




• The Office of the Surgeon General’s Smoking and Tobacco Use Cessation Committee has a number of groups experienced in the research and treatment of tobacco use cessation.

• Discussions about special pay across categories have been raised. The outcome for scientist officers and the timing is not known.

• RADM Hunter changed the management in the Commissioned Corps Headquarters to get Chief Professional Officers engaged in the Office of Surgeon General’s initiatives.


• SciPAC is looking for a replacement for CAPT Dobmeyer to serve on the Commissioned Corps Women's Issues Advisory Board. We will be sending out application guidelines soon via the listserv for those that are interested. The requested application information will likely include a 1-page statement describing your interest in the position, your CV summary page, and an approval email by your supervisor.

• Reminder for those of you up for promotion to review your eOPFs. To make corrections to your eOPF you need to sign into the Officer Secure Area and there will be an option to click a blue link that says “IF there are errors in your eOPF click here”.

• Introduction for CAPT Postelle Birch-Smith from the PharmPAC who is the founder and the chair of the Topics in Public Health Series Committee. The series was designed to educate PHS health professionals on a variety of relevant topics and she will tell us more about it as well as explain how SciPAC officers can attend or contribute to the series. The PowerPoint presentation was sent out via the Listserv.

• There was a request for all SciPAC Subcommittee Chairs to send CDR Murphy WORD version of current subcommittee SOPs.

4) Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Adjemian • No update to report


• We had 112 Scientist Officers attend last month’s SciPAC meeting. • If you have any information on events or relevant messages that you wish to distribute to the




• Lastly, we have a conference line that is available to reserve for SciPAC-related meetings. If


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interested, please email me with your requested dates and times.



a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CDR Tony Satterfield o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee is now accepting nominations for the 2016 Junior

Scientist of the Year Award, 2016 Senior Scientist of the Year Award and 2016 Scientist Mentor of the Year Award. Please consider submitting a nomination if you know an outstanding Scientist Officer who is eligible and deserves award recognition. Officers can also self-nominate for the Junior and Senior Scientist Awards. More information regarding these awards can be obtained in the email sent out on Friday January 29th through the SciPAC Listserv. The nomination deadline is: COB Friday, 26 February 2016.


Demissie o OBC:

− OBC is scheduled to occur in February and four scientists are scheduled to attend: LT Virginia Bowen, (CDC-EIS, Atlanta) LT Bradley Goodwin (CDC-EIS, Atlanta) LT Rebecca Merrill (CDC-EIS, Atlanta) LT Mary Puckett (CDC-EIS, Atlanta)

− LCDR Lana Rossiter is coordinating Scientist volunteers to attend the open house and graduation ceremony. Interested officers should contact her for additional information regarding these activities.

o Subcommittee business: − The subcommittee had a teleconference on Friday, January 29th to discuss upcoming

activities, to include reviewing the Scientist benchmarks and CV guidelines. LCDR Zewditu Demissie will be sending additional information to the subcommittee members involved in these tasks.

c) Category Day: CDR Robin Toblin; Co-Chair: LCDR Seth Green o The Scientist Category Day agenda is finalized and will be posted on the SciPAC website

shortly. o The keynote speaker will be Dr. Vicki TallChief who will focus on community-based

approaches to public health preparedness within the context of Native American tribes. o The social team has planned an evening of mini-golf and dinner for the category. o The subcommittee will be soliciting topics of interest for CAPT Sanders's State of the

Category address. o Registration for the conference and hotels are open as are scholarships for junior officers.

http://symposium.phscof.org/registration

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o We currently have a surplus of mentors with and no recent requests from mentees. If you

are looking for a mentor or interested in becoming a mentor please email CDR Thomas ([email protected]) or LCDR Cole ([email protected]). As a reminder, existing mentoring agreements expire annually and should be renewed. You can find the renewal form on the mentoring page http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/ of the SciPAC

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website. Also on the website are the Mentoring Guidebook, a reference guide, and application forms.

o The call for the 2nd Mentor of the Year award went out from the Awards committee. We encourage all mentees to consider nominating their mentor for this award. The application information was sent on the list serve last week.

o In January the mentoring subcommittee finalized and distributed a 5 year career planning document to all mentors. This document is intended to help initiate a discussion between mentors and mentees regarding the mentees long term plans and will be incorporated into the Mentoring Guidebook. This topic was chosen after surveying the SciPAC mentees last summer on what topics they were interested in getting more guidance on from their mentor.

o The promotion panel invitations were sent to all recently promoted O-5 officers and we’ve had an almost 75% positive response rate. Several teleconferences with 4-5 officers each will be held over the next two months to allow us to collect information from officers with recent promotion success. The final results will be collected and summarized with no identifying information and shared with the PAC. The information will be used to help provide current guidance and recommendations in light of the changed promotion outcomes. Many of our mentors experienced a different promotion process than the current environment. A similar process is planned for O-6 officers once the O-5 panels are complete. LCDR Lana Rossiter is leading this effort.

o Efforts are on-going to organize the mentoring event at Category Day. The planned format is small group discussions with a designated mentor lead for each topic. There will be ~15 minutes for each topic with the ability to attend up to 3 different small group discussions during the event. Any SciPAC officers with a suggestion for topics to discuss can email them to CDR Thomas and LCDR Cole. A formal request for suggestions will go out through the list serve soon.

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o The draft EHOPAC policy addresses standards/policies relevant to the use of social media, to

ensure that EHOPAC procedures are consistent with the 2015 HHS Social Media Policies Checklist

o Recommend adding in all social media policies of agencies under PHS (SAMHSA, FDA, NIH, CDC all have policies, as does DOD)

o Documents adherence to the HHS Social Media Policies Checklist Use of Social Media, including personal use, official posting, and creating and managing official social media profiles

o Governs official use of social media by their PAC, and any subgroups within the PAC. o Covers web and mobile applications, blogging, video sharing sites and social networking

sites o Refers to their draft EHOPAC Social Media SOP document (separate document) and other

PAC SOPs. SCIPAC would need to draft corresponding SOPs if it wishes to implement a similar policy.

o EHOPAC created “Communications Working Group” to oversee their official social media policy, procedures usage.

o Need to maintain information security, records retention/ storage protocols, and Section 508 compliance.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: LCDR Anne Marie France o Update:

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− Total Corps Officers: 6,575 per DCCPR statistics available online − Number of Scientist Officers: 331 (5.0%) (net loss of 4 Scientist officers since last month)

o Readiness − CDR Dominic Frasca is our lead for readiness status. We are in a holding pattern at the

moment while Direct Access comes online and MAB gets caught up with submissions. We have received no updates since mid-December.

o Retention − We are working with DCCPR to obtain data on separations and retirements. We have

received some descriptive data, but we are trying to clarify the date range. CDR Mark Clayton has learned that of the last 39 Scientist officers who have separated, 20 were eligible for retirement and 19 (48%) separated without retirement benefits. Of those who separated, 11 were O3, 7 were O4 and 1 was O5. LT Eric Jamoom is working with DCCPR to help them capture information about officer separation and we have initiated discussions with DCCPR to see what data are available on separations.

− CDR Anne Marie France is leading a group to establish a standard survey that will be administered to all Scientist officers on an annual basis. Her team is developing survey questions this week and the survey will be finalized, approved and released to Scientist officers in the coming weeks. The survey will address demographics, education, benchmarks, readiness, retention, and more. Our aim is to capture officer-reported data about the contribution of Scientist officers and the strength of our category on a yearly basis. When the survey becomes available, your participation will be important!


g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o No update to report.

h) Science: CDR Jeffrey Goodie; Co-Chair: CAPT Ryan Novak

o Science and Practice Team − Next S& P call Tuesday, 15 March 2016, 1200 EST. The speaker will be LCDR Danielle

Barradas and she'll talk about capacity building – what it is, why it’s important, and ways to build capacity in resource-limited settings using examples from work with American Indian tribes, states, and perhaps foreign ministries of health. The title of the talk is: Capacity Building in Resource-Limited Settings. Call-in Number: 866-782-0573 Participant Passcode: 2214354

− If you have ideas for future topics that might be applicable to Scientists, please contact LCDR Timothy Cunningham at [email protected]

o Journal Club Team − Please join us for the SciPAC Science Committee's next Journal Club call on Tuesday, 09

February 2016 from 1200-1300 Eastern Time. The February 2016 Journal Club call will address the Tobacco Free Living Priority Area of

the National Prevention Strategy. Our Subject Matter Expert will be LCDR Timothy Cunningham from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). LCDR Cunningham is acting team lead for CDC's State Chronic Disease Epidemiology Assignee Program. In this role, he leads a team responsible for building capacity necessary for effective chronic disease epidemiology within state health departments. The article to be discussed is entitled: " Cigarette Smoking, Tooth Loss, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): Findings From the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System".

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Toll-Free-Number: 866-768-5238 Participant Passcode: 76235781

− Please do support your fellow Scientist officers who are presenting the wonderful work they are doing in various areas of public health research.


Health is being edited. o Biography and Publications Team

− By 5 February 2016 Send COMPLETED 2014 and 2015 work by emailing any publications, books or book chapters, government reports and presentations (from any venue including conferences, media, meetings, etc.) to [email protected] with “2014-15 bibliography submission” in the subject line.

− 2010-2013 bibliographies at http://usphs-scientist.org/bibliography/ Working on making corrections Email: [email protected] with “Bibliography edit requested” in the subject

line. − Working to enter information for the 2014 bibliography Fewer entries than expected submitted

i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce o Trivia night was a success. LCDR Kamil Barbour led this on 13 January 2016. o Newsletter

− The Newsletter Subcommittee has found a layout editor for the newsletter! We are thrilled, and we welcome LT Jonetta Johnson.

− We expect to have a newsletter laid out soon. After review by the Visibility Chairs, our PAC Chair (CDR Murphy), and CPO CAPT Sanders, it should be ready to post.

− Contact [email protected] for questions, or if you are interested in helping with the Newsletter.

o COF Symposium Poster is in development. o AMSUS Update from LCDR Erin Nichols

− For those who are not familiar with AMSUS-- it is the Society for Federal Health Professionals. It primarily serves as forum for networking and continuing education, with its main CE event being its annual meeting held at the end of Nov/ early Dec. The annual meeting has a very interesting program with participation from federal health leadership, including across uniformed services and internationally.

− Starting this year and for the next four years, the annual meeting will be held in the Washington DC area, so for those in the area, this could be a good opportunity to check it out if travel funds are otherwise an issue.

− As for Committee updates, leadership of the USPHS AMSUS Planning Committee is working to formalize the committee through an official charter with OSG, and as part of this, they will be putting in place some new organizational structures. They are looking for anyone interested in supporting these projects...if you are interested, please let LCDR Nichols know.

− Otherwise, they are just beginning the planning year, so I'll keep you updated as plans evolve. If you are interested in attending this year's meeting, please let LCDR Nichols know.

o If you want to learn more about this group, I encourage you to check out their website at Amsus.org, or feel free to reach out to LCDR Erin Nichols at [email protected].

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j) Website: CDR Jacqueline Sram; Co-Chair: LCDR Jason Wilken o Our Website Editors have made significant progress on transferring our website content to

the PHS server. We are more than 50% complete with the migration. Understand that we need to complete the majority of the content transfer before we can have our site go live. All PHS related activities/groups have been given a deadline of 31 March 2016 to stop using fee-for-service websites and migrate their websites to the PHS server.

o Visitors to our current site: http://usphs-scientist.org/ - In the last 30 days, our current website had 3,443 visitors and 40,502 visits. We posted the January 2016 meeting minutes.



− COA Board convened on 27 January 2016 − The Constitution and Resolutions Committee is conducting outreach to local branches to

verify they are active and document current local branch leadership; please be aware that local branches are required to submit quarterly reports to the national COA Local Branch Committee

− COL Jim Currie continues to focus on meeting with local branches; he is also available for discussion during PAC meetings

− COA is representing USPHS interests on TRICARE reform; the COA Legislation & Benefits Committee established a workgroup to study TRICARE reform; Judy Rensberger represents COA on The Military Coalition’s Health Care Committee

− COA successfully negotiated discounts on admission to Disney; it is working on negotiating discounts or free admission with other corporate, governmental, and private entities

− COA has been advocating to the U.S. Senate on behalf of the nomination of Dr. Karen De Salvo to be Assistant Secretary for Health in HHS

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − JOAG is currently accepting nominations for voting members for 2016-2018 terms.

Nominations are due by 04 March 2016. Information is available here: https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/JOAG/about_membership.aspx. JOAG Voting Membership is a great leadership opportunity for junior officers, and I encourage anyone who is interested to apply, or to contact me with questions.

− JOAG now has a Twitter feed, @PHS_JOAG; all officers are welcome to follow the Twitter feed for timely information and events. If you’re on Twitter, please join us.

− Nominations are due February 12th for the JOAG Excellence Award and JOAG Junior Officer of the Year Award. Please consider self-nominating or encouraging excellent junior officers to apply. For more information see https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/JOAG/awards.aspx.

− Our next Journeyman Speaker Series on March 11th will feature CAPT Robert Tosatto and CAPT Patrick Denis presenting about the Medical Reserve Corps. Details and slide set to follow when available.

− The JOAG online store is open, at https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/JOAG/merchandise.aspx. Please check out our selection of coins, coin racks, t-shirts, and other PHS merchandise.

• PSYPAG: LCDR Luz Rivera − PsyPAG had its first general meeting of the year on February 3. It operates on a calendar

year basis, consistent with HSPAC. PsyPAG originated out of HSPAC. All executive board positions are held by Scientists this year: Chair: CDR Robin Toblin; Chair-Elect: LCDR Seth

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Green; Secretary: LCDR Ed Cua − There has been a shift in committee structure including two new committees: Rules and

Procedures (led by the chair-elect) and Communications. The Rules and Procedures big task for the year will be to help all the committees and special interest groups develop the first SOPs. The Communications committee will develop a newsletter, Facebook page, redesign the PsyPAG website and develop a coin, logo, and motto.

− The PAG will be looking at ways to get all psychologists together in one category, possibly a new category, as well as discrimination in accessions and healthcare on the basis of mental health, and specialty pay.


− The 2016 Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC) held its first meeting on 22 January 2016. MOLC currently is planning for the Annual Awards Ceremony to be hold at the 2016 USPHS Scientific Training and Symposium in Oklahoma City, OK, and the Awards Ceremony Planning Subcommittee is seeking volunteers from each CMAGs (Core Minority Advisory Groups*) to support the event. If interested, please contact the CMAG’s leadership. *Black Commissioned Officers Advisory Group (BCOAG) *Hispanic Officers Advisory Committee (HOAC) *Asian Pacific American Officers Committee (APAOC) *American Indian/Alaska Native Commissioned Officers Advisory Committee (AIANCOAC)


• Our next SciPAC call will be Tuesday, 01 March 2016.

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 01 March 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes March 2016 Page 1 of 10


Tuesday, 1 March 2016

1200–1300 (EDT)



CAPT Sanders, Martin Chief Scientist Officer Excused





Voting Members CDR Bodart, Jennifer Career Development Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Cole, Jessica Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Frasca, Dominic Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Goodie, Jeffrey Science Subcommittee Chair Excused LCDR Green, Seth Category Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CAPT Novak, Ryan Science Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused LCDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment, Retention & Readiness


CAPT Robbins, Nisha Yes CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative No CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Excused

Non-voting Liaisons

LCDR Rivera, Luz PSYPAG Liaison No



LCDR Shumate, Alice JOAG Liaison Excused


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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Avchen, Rachel CDC Yes CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Despins, Joseph FDA Yes CAPT Dobmeyer, Anne C. DoD Yes CAPT Frazer, Nicole DoD Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Lawrence, Theresa HHS Yes CAPT Murry, Michael BOP Yes CDR Alves, Gelio NIH Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Boehmer, Tegan CDC Yes CDR Calanan, Renee CDC Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR Davidson, Bryan DoD Yes CDR Dutton, Samuel S. DHS Yes CDR France, Anne Marie CDC Yes CDR Glover, Maleeka CDC Yes CDR Highsmith, Keisher HRSA Yes CDR Jentes, Emily CDC Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR Laird, David FDA Yes CDR MacGill, Tracy FDA Yes CDR Pauli, Ingrid DoD Yes CDR Powell, Tracy HHS Yes CDR Sharma, Andrea CDC Yes CDR Streeter, Emily DoD Yes CDR Watson, Tenaya DoD Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Cui, Minglei FDA Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Garrett, Tiana DHS Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Henderson, Tamara FDA Yes LCDR Hoffman, Kelsy FDA Yes LCDR Houston, Keisha CDC Yes LCDR Huang, David CDC Yes LCDR Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ATSDR Yes LCDR Miller, Mark EPA Yes

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Rank Participant Agency Present LCDR Myers, Todd DoD Yes LCDR O'Neill, Eduardo CDC Yes LCDR Pamboukian, Ruiqing FDA Yes LCDR Parker, Erin CDC Yes LCDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes LCDR Perrine, Cria Gregory CDC Yes LCDR Pesce, John NIH Yes LCDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes LCDR Pulliam, Sara DoD Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes LCDR Sandhu, Sukhminder FDA Yes LCDR Sauber-Schatz, Erin K. CDC Yes LCDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes LCDR Slayton, Rachel B. CDC Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Taylor, Eboni CDC Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Vagi, Sara CDC Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LCDR Zucco, Julia CMS Yes LT Beard, John Doyle CDC Yes LT Burgos, Jonathan FDA Yes LT Cleck-Derenick, Jessica FDA Yes LT Cross, Israel CMS Yes LT Francia, Charlotte BOP Yes LT Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LT Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LT Jamoom, Eric CDC Yes LT Jarvis-Durham, Lisa CMS Yes LT Jeisy Scott, Victoria NCIRD Yes LT Johnson, Jonetta CDC Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Lucas, Neali FDA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Muniz Ortiz, Jorge USDA Yes LT Nadeau, Jessica CDC Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Scott, Colleen CDC Yes LT Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes

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2) Report from the CPO: CAPT Martin Sanders (CDR Matthew Murphy Reporting)

• Congratulations to CAPT Sara Newman for being selected as the JOAG Senior Advisor. 3) Report from the Chair: CDR Matthew Murphy

• Congratulations to CAPT Sara Newman who was appointed JOAG Senior Advisor. • SciPAC had been approached to help with the 8th Annual PHS Awareness Day. With the quick

assistance of the visibility Subcommittee’s to identify volunteers I want to thank: o LCDR Rossiter, who will serve as the lead volunteer o LCDR Garnett o LCDR Pamboukian o LCDR Rivera

Anyone with interest please contact CDR Rodgers. • The SciPAC Executive Board was still accepting applications from officers interested in serving as

SCIPAC Liaison on the Commissioned Corps Women's Issues Advisory Board until COB March 2nd.

• There was a discussion about the Post-9/11 GI Bill (See attached PowerPoint for guidance).

4) Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Adjemian • Hi everyone, I wanted to share an update regarding a new initiative that SciPAC is leading, in

conjunction with the Veterinary Category. As many of you are well aware, a few years back there was a new cap set in place on the amount of Training and Education credits that could be granted to new Scientist recruits. Initially it was capped at 8 years, but recently was changed to 9 years, though this is still significantly less than the prior cap of 12 years. Given that virtually every new PhD comes in at the cap, and typically loses credit for several years of professional experience, we have had growing concerns regarding how this is impacting the recruitment and retention of Scientists. The Veterinarians are in a similar position with the same concerns, and it is also likely that other categories are similarly affected.

• Over the past few months members of the Executive Board from both SciPAC and VetPAC, along with the leaders of our respective Recruitment, Retention and Readiness Subcommittees, have been working together closely to determine the best way to address these concerns. In these discussions, it has become apparent that what we really need—and greatly lack—are data that can enable us to quantify the impacts of these policy changes. Specifically, how have our recruitment and retention rates changed over the last few years, and if it has, which ranks, agencies and sub-specialties are most affected?

• To gather these critical data, LCDR Anne Purfield and CDR Anne Marie France from the RR&R subcommittee have worked extensively to develop a comprehensive survey, with the objective of identifying important trends within our category that can shed light on these potential impacts from the T&E policy changes. Within the next few days, you will receive an invitation to complete this important survey. It is imperative that you take the 20 minutes needed to do so, as we will need a response rate of over 80% to have truly meaningful data. Besides, the sooner you complete it, the fewer emails you will receive bugging you to do so! We sincerely appreciate everyone’s cooperation in completing this survey in a timely manner.


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• Should you have any questions about this initiative, please feel free to reach out to me or CDR Murphy.








a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CDR Tony Satterfield o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee is beginning the process of reviewing the nominations for

the 2016 Junior Scientist of the Year, Senior Scientist of the Year and Scientist Mentor of the Year Awards. This year we had a number of well-deserving officers nominated for each of these awards. Thank you to those who nominated an officer and we look forward to announcing the award recipients once the review and voting process has been completed.


Demissie o OBC:

− Four scientists attended OBC in February: LT Virginia Bowen, (CDC-EIS, Atlanta) LT Bradley Goodwin (CDC-EIS, Atlanta) LT Rebecca Merrill (CDC-EIS, Atlanta) LT Mary Puckett (CDC-EIS, Atlanta)


o Category Day is Wednesday, May 18. The program will run from 745 - 1715. There will now be a zika virus talk from 1715-1815.

o The Scientist social will occur on Wednesday, May 18 at 1900 at a mini golf and teams will be created during category day.

o The category-wide social will also be May 18 from 2030-2330. We hope Scientists prioritize our social and then join the all-category day social afterwards.

o Posters abstracts for COF are due on March 15. o We are looking into webcasting category day. o Registration is now open for the conference and hotels. JOAG has offered a room sharing

program.

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o There is currently a surplus of mentors with no pending mentee matches. If you are looking

for a mentor or interested in becoming a mentor please email CDR Thomas ([email protected])

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or LCDR Cole ([email protected]). As a reminder, existing mentoring agreements expire annually and should be renewed. You can find the renewal form on the mentoring page http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/ of the SciPAC website. Also on the website are the Mentoring Guidebook, a reference guide, and application forms.

o The promotion panel interviews for recently promoted O-5 officers begin this week. There were 27 officers who were able to participate and we anticipate the panels being completed by early April. There will be NMT 4 officers in each panel so a number of panels will be held.

o Category day mentoring event planning and revisions to the mentoring subcommittee SOP are on-going.

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o No update to report.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: CDR Anne Marie

France o Total Corps Officers: 6,575 (net zero) per DCCPR statistics available online o Number of Scientist Officers: 330 (5.0%) (-1) per DCCPR statistics available online

New CAD: 1 Separations: 1 (retirement)

o Current Readiness Status: 93% Basic Ready; 4% Not Qualified; 3% Exempt o Officers who are Projected Not Ready on 4/1/16: 45 (14%) Update: o Call for deployment experiences o Recruitment

− LCDR Angela Thompson-Paul and her team are advising soon-to-be EIS graduates on their job search. Officers who entered Corps through the EIS program in 2014 are currently seeking jobs. These officers entered into the Medical Ready Reserve and will need to find Corps billets by July 1 to transition to the Regular Corps. If you know of a position that would benefit from a scientist Officer who is completing EIS, please contact [email protected].

− LT Danny Benbasset leads the recruitment team. Danny has done a phenomenal job of growing our recruitment efforts. When Agency SciPAC key contacts become aware of potential applicants for the Corps, they should contact Danny and LCDR Sharyn Parks Brown, who are maintaining a database of potential applicants. This past month, they added 3 prospects to the database.

− Danny also maintains a database of officers who are already boarded by Corps and seeking positions. Once applicants have been boarded, they have 12 months to secure a position and submit a 1662 form. He has contacted all six officers who are boarded to collect CVs and assist with placing these candidates in HHS positions. The candidates have granted Danny permission to circulate their CVs. Currently one officer is waiting on a 1662 from DHA; 5 officers are seeking positions. Danny sends them job announcements for Scientist officers as they are posted on our list serv. If you are aware of a position or would like to review the CVs of these candidates, please contact LT Danny Benbassat ([email protected]).



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− Danny has also contacted and established working relationships with USPHS Commissioned Corps liaisons at HHS Agencies to promote the hiring of Scientist officers and help with job placement for candidates.

− Danny is also working with DCCPR and other PACs to learn more about how the process to decide when our category will negotiate for open recruitment.

o Readiness − CDR Dominic Frasca is our lead for readiness status. The next readiness check will be

performed at the end of the month. Please check your readiness status. − The Scientist Officer Vignettes work group has received articles submitted by officers

who have deployed or have done TDY. These articles describe their deployment or TDY activities and highlight the contribution of our Scientist Officers to the PHS mission. We encourage you to submit a vignette to share your deployment/TDY experience. Your write-up will be considered for publication in the Scientist Newsletter. If you would like to share your deployment experiences/stories, please contact LT Oliver Ou at [email protected]

o Retention − We are working with DCCPR to obtain data on separations and retirements. We have

received some descriptive data, but we are trying to clarify the date range. CDR Mark Clayton has learned that of the last 39 Scientist officers who have separated, 20 were eligible for retirement and 19 (48%) separated without retirement benefits. Of those who separated, 11 were O3, 7 were O4 and 1 was O5. LT Eric Jamoom is working with DCCPR to help them capture information about officer separation and we have initiated discussions with DCCPR to see what data are available on separations.

− CDR Anne Marie France is leading a group to establish a standard survey that will be administered to all Scientist officers on an annual basis. We’ve developed the survey and are in final testing, and it will be deployed later this week. When the survey becomes available, your participation will be important! We are aiming for at least 80% (264 officers) participation by Scientist officers. When the survey becomes available, please take a few minutes to complete it and help us understand how recruitment and retention policies may affect our category’s strength.


g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o Members of the Rules and Membership subcommittee will convene this month to discuss

changes to the SciPAC SOP, as well as to set a timeline regarding the application for SciPAC Membership, which will be coming out within the next few months. More information on the SciPAC Membership application procedures will be given during the next SciPAC call.


− Next S& P call Tuesday, March 15, 1200 EST. The speaker will be LCDR Danielle Barradas and she will talk about capacity building – what it is, why it’s important, and ways to build capacity in resource-limited settings using examples from work with American Indian tribes, states, and perhaps foreign ministries of health. The title of the talk is: Capacity


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Building in Resource-Limited Settings. − Call-in Number: 866-782-0573 Participant Passcode: 2214354 − We will not have an S&P call during the month of May because of USPHS Symposium − If you have ideas for future topics that might be applicable to Scientists, please contact

LCDR Timothy Cunningham at [email protected] − Please note that attending Science and Practice Team calls count towards contact hours.

for promotion benchmark #2, where Scientist Officers are expected to obtain a minimum of 30-40 contact hours per year (based on grade)

o Journal Club Team

− The next SciPAC Journal Club call is on Tuesday, April 12th from 1200-1300 EDT. Our speaker will be LCDR Matt Lozier from the CDC. Toll-Free-Number: 866-768-5238 Participant Passcode: 76235781

− The February 9th Journal Club was a great success. − Please do support your fellow Scientist officers who are presenting the wonderful work

they are doing in various areas of public health research. − Please note that attending Journal Club Team calls count towards contact hours for

promotion benchmark #2, where Scientist Officers are expected to obtain a minimum of 30-40 contact hours per year (based on grade)

o NPS team

− The draft of the National Prevention Strategy commentary for American Journal of Public Health has been drafted and is being sent to leadership for approval.

− The article is titled: “Improving Health through the National Prevention Strategy: Contributions of U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Scientist Officers”

o Biography and Publications Team

− Send Completed 2014 and 2015 work by emailing any publications, books or book chapters, government reports and presentations (from any venue including conferences, media, meetings, etc.) to [email protected] with “2014-15 bibliography submission” in the subject line.



i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce o The Visibility Subcommittee will be representing SciPAC during the upcoming 8th Annual

PHS Awareness Day at the FDA White Oak Campus in Silver Spring, MD. This will occur on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm. LCDR Lana Rossiter will serve as the lead, and the following officers will be assisting: LCDR Ted Garnett, LCDR Ruiqing Pamboukian, and LCDR Luz Rivera

o We expect to see the newest issue of the Scientist Newsletter to be released this week with the next issue coming out in Mid-April. Special thanks to LT Jonetta Johnson for all her work with the layouts

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o COF Symposium Poster has been cleared by SciPAC. o No AMSUS Update (there was no meeting this month)


o Migration to the new server is ~90% complete, and we expect the SciPAC website to go live on the new server before March 31. Our current website had 5,473 page views and 278 visitors in February. Any new materials submitted to the Website Subcommittee for posting on the SciPAC website will be posted after migration has completed.

o We’ve been experiencing some technical difficulties with the usphs-scientist.org website in the past couple of weeks; the website has had some visual output and functional problems. These problems are because of a software update that impacted our chosen theme for the website, and as a temporary measure we have changed to a plain white theme while we diagnose the problem. Even if the problem persists, the problem will be moot once the website has migrated to the new server.

o Please contact CDR Sram ([email protected]) or LCDR Wilken ([email protected]) with questions.


− National COA is seeking nominations for the Board of Directors representing Field Officers (outside of DC) and Retired Officers, and also Pharmacist, Therapist, and Veterinarian Categories; the deadline is March 11, 2016

− COA Branch of the Year nominations are being accepted; the deadline is March 11, 2016 − COA is following Tricare reform legislation and advocating for the interests of PHS Officers;

Congress is evaluating recommendations from the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (MCRMC)

− The COA Board, including its Committees, is actively engaged in efforts for recruitment of PHS officers to initiate or renew membership, and for local branches to ensure that their current leadership list is on file with national COA

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − I am pleased to announce that our very own Scientist officer, CAPT Sara Newman has been

named as the new JOAG Senior Advisor, and her term starts today. Welcome, CAPT Newman, we’re thrilled to have you!

− JOAG is currently accepting nominations for voting members for 2016-2018 terms, and the call for nominations has been extended; they are now due by March 18, 2016. Information and application materials are available through the JOAG Listerv, have gone out through SciPAC email, or you can reach out to LCDR Shumate at [email protected]. JOAG Voting Membership is a great leadership opportunity for junior officers, and I encourage anyone who is interested to apply.

− JOAG is now on facebook! Please join us; the group is called USPHS Junior Officer Advisory Group.

− Our next Journeyman Speaker Series on March 11th will feature CAPT Robert Tosatto presenting about the Medical Reserve Corps. Slides and connection information went out on SciPAC listserv today.

− We will also have an extra Journeyman Speaker Series on March 25th featuring Dr. Nazleen Bharmal, Director of Science and Policy, OSG, speaking on “Opportunities for JOAG Officers to work with the Office of the Surgeon General.”

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• PSYPAG: LCDR Luz Rivera − Developing a survey to determine members' support for various initiatives. − Reviewing nominations for the Early Career and Senior Psychologist Achievement Awards. − Creating its first newsletter, the PsyPAG Post. − Updating its directory.


• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou − No update to report


• Our next SciPAC call will be 05 April 2016.

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 05 April 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes April 2016 Page 1 of 10


Tuesday, 5 April 2016

1200–1300 (EDT)







CDR Breiding, Matthew COF Liaison Excused



CAPT Robbins, Nisha Yes CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative No CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons

CDR Pauli, Ingrid PSYPAG Liaison Yes





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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Aponte, Boris CDC Yes CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Daugherty, Jon FDA Yes CAPT Despins, Joseph FDA Yes CAPT Dobmeyer, Anne C. DoD Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Krauthamer, Victor FDA Yes CAPT Murry, Michael BOP Yes CAPT Nelle, Timothy FDA Yes CAPT Thoroughman, Doug CDC Yes CDR Abe, Karon CDC Yes CDR Belde, Robert BOP Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Boehmer, Tegan CDC Yes CDR Carroll, Dianna D. CDC Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR Daniels, Heidi DoD Yes CDR Davidson, Bryan DoD Yes CDR Dee, Deborah CDC Yes CDR Dutton, Samuel S. DHS Yes CDR Facey, Judy EPA Yes CDR Gelio, Alves NIH Yes CDR Harcourt, Brian CDC Yes CDR Highsmith, Keisher HRSA Yes CDR Jentes, Emily CDC Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR MacGill, Tracy FDA Yes CDR Maddox, Charlene NIH Yes CDR McCollum, Andrea CDC Yes CDR Newland, Matthew HRSA Yes CDR Powell, Tracy HHS Yes CDR Sancho, Alfredo FDA Yes CDR Sauber-Schatz, Erin K. CDC Yes CDR Tate, Jacqueline CDC Yes CDR Xu, Fei FDA Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Bjork, Adam CDC Yes LCDR Bonzagni, Neil CDC Yes LCDR Demby, M. Lela BOP Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Edwards, Elizabeth FDA Yes LCDR Gaines, Joanna CDC Yes

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Rank Participant Agency Present LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes LCDR Hoffman, Kelsy FDA Yes LCDR Huang, David CDC Yes LCDR Lu, Xiaowu FDA Yes LCDR Miller, Leigh Ann CDC Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR O'Neill, Eduardo CDC Yes LCDR Pamboukian, Ruiqing FDA Yes LCDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes LCDR Pesce, John NIH Yes LCDR Pulliam, Sara DoD Yes LCDR Sandhu, Sukhminder FDA Yes LCDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes LCDR Schwitters, Amee CDC Yes LCDR Thompson-Paul, Angela CDC Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LCDR Blackburn, Tajah DHS Yes LT Beard, John Doyle CDC Yes LT Benbassat, Danny SAMHSA Yes LT Cross, Israel CMS Yes LT Eynon, Shane Yes LT Geyer, Rory FDA Yes LT Goodwin, Bradley Patrick CDC Yes LT Hickey, Andrew OHA Yes LT Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LT Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LT Iturriaga, Luis DHS Yes LT Jamoom, Eric CDC Yes LT Jarvis-Durham, Lisa CMS Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Lucas, Neali FDA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Mpofu (Johnson), Jonetta CDC Yes LT Muniz Ortiz, Jorge USDA Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle HHS Yes LT Wright, Marcienne ASPR Yes LT Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes

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• The PAC CPO meeting at the USPHS Symposium was moved to Monday at 1100. • Reminder to all officer’s up for promotion to keep their readiness status updated throughout

the year. • The promotion board did meet in March, it is not known when results will be reported. • The Ebola Awards should show up in your eOPF now or in the near future.


• Congratulations to CDR Sram and the entire Website Subcommittee for the creation of the new Scientist Website.

• Reminder about SciPAC journal club each month. In April the journal club is being held Tuesday, April 12th at noon EDT. The discussion will focus on Zika Virus with subject matter expert LCDR Matthew Lozier.

4) Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Adjemian • Thanks to those of you who completed the SciPAC survey. The data obtained from this survey

are truly critical for helping determine the state of our category, and we greatly appreciate your valuable time, insight and contributions. The RRR Subcommittee who is leading this effort has done a phenomenal job, and I am sure we will hear more from them as they move forward with the next steps.








a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CDR Tony Satterfield o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee continues to review the nominations for the 2016 Junior

Scientist of the Year, Senior Scientist of the Year and Scientist Mentor of the Year Awards. We look forward to announcing the award recipients once the review and voting process has been completed.



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− Six scientists are scheduled to attend OBC in April: LT Jason Caballero, (FDA, Houston, TX) LT Sharoda Dasgupta,(CDC, Atlanta, GA) LT Patrick High, (SAMHSA, Rockville, MD) LT Rebecca Levine, (CDC, Atlanta, GA) LT Jessica Nadeau, (CDC, Topeka, KS) LT Jessica Rinsky, (CDC, Raleigh, NC)

o Training workgroup: − There was a presentation from LCDR Elizabeth DeGrange, Chief, Division of Children's

Services OS/Office of Security and Strategic Information (OSSI), on the APFT scheduled to occur after the SciPAC call today. LCDR Matt Steele will facilitate this presentation. However, the Career Development subcommittee was notified during the SciPAC call that the speaker had to cancel the presentation. The presentation will be rescheduled to occur immediately after the May SciPAC call and LCDR Elizabeth Irvin-Barnwell will be the presenter.


o The COF Symposium is May 16-19 in Oklahoma City o The early bird pricing is over so now people will need to pay full price o Sunday, May 15 - Free Leadership Pre-Conference session o Tuesday, May 17 - SciPAC Informal Mentoring Session from 0700-0830 (coffee and pastries

provided) o Wednesday, May 18 - Scientist Category Day: 0745-1700 o Wednesday, May 18 - Scientist Social at Brickopolis (dinner and mini golf) at 1830 o Speakers: please upload presentations per guidelines o If you are speaking or presenting a poster during the main symposium sessions, please email

[email protected] or [email protected] o For the agenda and more information, please visit:

https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/2016categoryday.aspx

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o There were 2 new matches made in April and a recent request for a mentor is still pending.

We are looking into ways to have junior O4 officers become mentors for our new CADs. Look for more information on this topic in the near future or email LCDR Cole ([email protected]) if you have comments on this topic.

o Promotion panel interviews are on-going and 5 have been completed since March 4th. All officers promoted on the first try have now been interviewed and the remaining panels will collect information on the experiences of those officers who went through 2 or more cycles. All panels should be completed by the end of April, pending any scheduling issues. Once the O5 panels are completed a final report will be written and provided to PAC leadership and shared with the entire SciPAC community. The same format will be repeated with recently promoted O6 officers during the next operational year.

o There will be two mentoring events held at Category Day during this year’s Symposium in Oklahoma City. The first is Tuesday morning at 0700-0830 and will be an informal mentoring opportunity with senior officers available to provide advice. Some of these officers will be recently promoted officers and interested participants are encouraged to bring documents



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for review (CV, OS, etc.). The second event will be during category day and will be 3-4 table top discussions led by senior scientists. We are soliciting topics for discussion through the SciPAC list serve but you may also email LCDR Cole ([email protected]) or CDR Thomas ([email protected]) with your suggestions.

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o No update to report.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: CDR Anne Marie

France o Total Corps Officers: 6,592 (+17) per DCCPR statistics available online o Number of Scientist Officers: 333 (5.1%) (+3) per DCCPR statistics available online o New CAD: 10 (9 are 2015 EIS officers who have transitioned to the Regular Corps; 1 is a new

CAD on 01 April 2016) per Blue Book 05 April 2016 o Separations: None o Current Readiness Status: Unknown, waiting on update from DCCPR

Updates

o Recruitment − The "Best Kept Secrets" group will address important issues concerning recruitment of EIS

officers into the Corps. − LT Danny Benbassat continues to explore how Scientist officer recruitment may be

enhanced through our relationship with DCCPR recruitment team, other PACs and our Agency liaisons. When officers are boarded, they have one year to find a position (1662 form submission) or their application to the Corps will expire. Currently, we have 6 candidates who have been boarded and if they find a position, they will be receiving a Call to Active Duty. The officers were boarded through the open enrollment day last year, but have yet to find appropriate positions. They are not limited to positions at the FDA even though the open enrollment period was initially in place for positions at FDA. LT Benbassat is in frequent communication with the six boarded candidates and notifies them of available positions.

o Readiness − Readiness was most recently checked on March 31. We have not received an update on

Scientist officer readiness since our last meeting. It appears that eOPF fax lines are still on lock down until the eOPFs are pulled for promotion board review.

− The Scientist Officer Vignettes work group has submitted an article to the SciPAC Newsletter. This article described an officer’s experience in creating and launching a mental health program that meets National Policy and Residential Standards for women and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador who have crossed the border from Mexico into Texas. Our officer was sent to the Rio Grande Valley region to combat a “humanitarian crisis” pronounced by President Obama on June 30th, 2014. We hope you will enjoy reading our first Scientist Officer Vignette and encourage you to submit a vignette to share your deployment/TDY experience. Please contact LCDR Oliver Ou at [email protected] if you are interested. Thanks you!

o Retention − LCDR Alice Shumate is leading a team to develop a model to evaluate the strength of

our category and to estimate how changes in policies for recruitment and retention will affect our category going forward. We are working with DCCPR to obtain data on




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separations and retirements to improve the robustness of the model. LT Eric Jamoom is working with DCCPR to help capture information about officer separation.

− CDR Anne Marie France is leading a group to establish a standard survey, referred to as our SoS or State of the Scientists survey, that will be administered to all Scientist officers on an annual basis. A giant thank you to everyone who endured our frequent reminders, pleas and requests. We achieved our goal of 80% participation and are currently analyzing the results, which will be first presented, along with results from the mathematical model, during the COA Symposium in Oklahoma City.


g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o The Rules and Membership Subcommittee is currently reviewing a revised draft of the

SciPAC SOP. Over the next two weeks their feedback will be compiled into an updated version that will then be forwarded on to the Executive Board for review and final approval.


− No S&P call in May due to USPHS Symposium o Journal Club Team

− The next SciPAC Journal Club call is on Tuesday, 12 April 2016 from 1200-1300 EDT. Our speaker will be LCDR Matt Lozier from the CDC.

− Topic: Reproductive and Sexual Health Priority Area of the National Prevention Strategy. The timely article to be discussed is entitled:

− Article: “Association between Zika virus and microcephaly in French Polynesia, 2013-2015: a retrospective study”

− Call in: https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/r8433w738u9/ Toll-Free-Number: 888-808-6929 Participant Passcode: 8830259

− Please do support your fellow Scientist officers who are presenting the wonderful work they are doing in various areas of public health research.

− Please note that attending Journal Club Team calls count towards contact hours for promotion benchmark #2, where Scientist Officers are expected to obtain a minimum of 30-40 contact hours per year (based on grade)


Health has been drafted and is being sent to leadership for approval. − The article is titled: “Improving Health through the National Prevention Strategy:

Contributions of U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Scientist Officers” o Biography and Publications Team



line.

https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/r8433w738u9/




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− Working to enter information for the 2014 bibliography Fewer entries than expected submitted


o AMSUS UPDATES (LCDR Erin Nichols) − AMSUS is an organization for federal and international health professionals, including

significant participation from the uniformed services. This year their annual meeting is 29 November – 2 December in Washington DC, where it will take place for the next 4 years.

− The meeting serves as an opportunity for CE credits, so presentations are 60 minutes, lecture-style. The abstract portal is now open; Deadline for the 60 minute lecture submissions is Friday, April 29th; Deadline for Poster Submission is Friday, July 8th;

− A reminder email should be coming out over the listserv this week with additional details. − AMSUS has a new fee structure this year-- there will be no fees for guests who want to

attend and who do not need official CME/CE credits. − Specific for Scientists -- PHS was asked to present a conference-wide, plenary early bird

session on the Domestic response to Zika Virus. LCDR Erin Nichols will be working as needed with the planning group to help coordinate Scientist participation in the panel.

− The USPHS AMSUS Planning Committee is undergoing a formalization process to receive an official charter from OSG, and they are now in the process of forming Subcommittees. For anyone interested in getting more involved, now is a good time. Please contact LCDR Erin Nichols for more information ([email protected]).


o We are pleased to announce that the new SciPAC website went live on March 10. The new website is now hosted on the OSG’s server, and can be found at https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist. The old website now prominently features a link redirecting visitors to the new website. From this point on, no further modifications will be made to the old website.

o We are currently working on strategies to bring legacy documents into 508 compliance and to make them available on the new website. For documents that are listed but no link is provided, the documents are available upon request. Please contact the Website Subcommittee Chair/Co-chair or the document owner with your request.

o The Website Subcommittee has been hard at work checking the formatting of all the materials and content migrated to the new site. We ask that any Scientist officer who finds a mistake, formatting error, or broken link, to please inform CDR Jacqueline Sram ([email protected]) or LCDR Jason Wilken ([email protected]).

o We would like to thank the Website Subcommittee for all of their hard work to launch the new SciPAC website on the PHS server.

o The new website is current and contains all recent update requests. We encourage all the subcommittees to submit their information for posting.

o We are aware of the problem with broken links on the Subcommittee page, and we are working to fix this problem.

o Please contact CDR Sram or LCDR Wilken if you have any questions. 8) Liaison Reports

• COA: CAPT Diana Elson − Voting is open until April 22nd for members of the COA Board of Directors representing


https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist



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Field Officers, Pharmacist Officers, Retired Officers, Therapist Officers, and Veterinarian Officers. COA members are encouraged to vote for nominees in these categories.

− COA Executive Director hosted a webinar entitled, “The New Uniformed Services Retirement System: How Does it Affect You?” The archived webinar is available on the COA website.

− On Wednesday, 6 April 2016 at 1200 EDT, CDR Josef Rivero will host a webinar to provide updates for COA Local Branches. Officers can connect at collaboration.fda.gov/usphs.

− Please see the COA website and Frontline for legislative updates

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − On April 6th, National Walking Day, JOAG’s Every Body Walk! Subcommittee is hosting a

walk with RADM Sylvia Trent-Adams in Washington, DC, from 1130-noon. Meet in front of the HHS Humphrey Building at 200 Independence Ave., wearing a PHS t-shirt and athletic bottoms.

− JOAG is co-hosting National Park Rx Day on 24 April 2016. We’ll be in Washington, DC with VADM Murthy at Meridian Hill Park in DC, starting at 1030. We also have information on co-hosting events elsewhere; contact me at [email protected].

− Finally, this Saturday JOAG is volunteering at Fort McNair, helping with an open house at the historic Grant Hall. If any officers are interested, please see the information that went out over the SciPAC listserv yesterday.

− JOAG now has a group calendar for APFT events throughout the nation. It’s available through the JOAG Readiness committee’s page; please check it out if you’re looking for an APFT event near you.

− JOAG junior officer scholarship applications for the COF Symposium were due yesterday; recipients will be announced soon. We’ve also sent some other information through the SciPAC listserv about room share and car share, as well as opportunities like volunteering at the uniform inspection booth. We hope to see you there.

• PSYPAG: CDR Ingrid B. Pauli

− PsyPAG's bimonthly meeting will occur on Wednesday, 6 April at 1200 EST. The guest speaker is LCDR Rivera. She will be discussing her unique role at the FDA.

− PsyPAG is launching a survey of its members designed to help shape the direction of the PAG over the next couple of years.

− In March, PsyPAG published its first issue of its newsletter, the PsyPAG Post. Thanks to CAPT Kay Beaulieu for her hard work and dedication in leading the charge.

− The PsyPAG Posts feature many recurring reports on topics such as: o Officer in the Spotlight. This issue featured LCDR Joy Mobley of SAMSHA o Professional Development o Esprit de Corps (working on designing a PAG coin, motto, and logo) o Readiness o Hail and Farewell


• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou − MOLC Awards Ceremony Planning Subcommittee is seeking volunteers from each CMAGs

(Core Minority Advisory Groups) to support the event. If interested, please contact the CMAG’s (Core Minority Advisory Group) leadership. Officers from OK are especially needed for logistic support activities for this event.

− Training on VA benefit will be provided by Edward Perry, who is a Military Services


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Coordinator for the New York Regional Office of the Department of Veteran Affairs/Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). Please join the training if you are interested. Detailed information will be distributed in the Listserv and meeting minutes.

Topic: VA benefit Date: Wednesday, 20 April 2016 Time: 1200 – 1300 PM, EDT


• Our next SciPAC call will be 03 May 2016.

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 03 May 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes May 2016 Page 1 of 11


Tuesday, 3 May 2016

1200–1300 (EDT)








Voting Members CDR Bodart, Jennifer Career Development Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Cole, Jessica Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Frasca, Dominic Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Goodie, Jeffrey Science Subcommittee Chair Yes LCDR Green, Seth Category Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CAPT Novak, Ryan Science Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused LCDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment, Retention & Readiness


CAPT Robbins, Nisha Yes CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative Yes CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons






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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Daugherty, Jon FDA Yes CAPT Despins, Joseph FDA Yes CAPT Draski, Laura OS Yes CAPT Elson, Diana ICE Yes CAPT Frazer, Nicole DoD Yes CAPT Hendricks, M. Thomas FDA Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Massoudi, Mehran CDC Yes CAPT Nelle, Timothy FDA Yes CDR Belde, Robert BOP Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Calanan, Renee CDC Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR Clingman, Chekesha S. FDA Yes CDR Davidson, Bryan DoD Yes CDR Gelio, Alves NIH Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR Newland, Matthew HRSA Yes CDR Pauli, Ingrid DoD Yes CDR Powell, Tracy HHS Yes CDR Streeter, Emily DoD Yes CDR Watson, Tenaya DoD Yes CDR Xu, Fei FDA Yes LCDR Bjork, Adam CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Demby, M. Lela BOP Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Gaines, Joanna CDC Yes LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Henderson, Tamara FDA Yes LCDR Huang, David CDC Yes LCDR Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ATSDR Yes LCDR Lu, Xiaowu FDA Yes LCDR Myers, Todd DoD Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR Pamboukian, Ruiqing FDA Yes LCDR Perez, Cesar FDA Yes LCDR Pesce, John NIH Yes LCDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes

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Rank Participant Agency Present LCDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes LCDR Shumate, Alice CDC Yes LCDR Steele, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Zhou, Eric NIH Yes LCDR Zucco, Julia CMS Yes LT Brown, Jorielle SAMHSA Yes LT Cleck-Derenick, Jessica FDA Yes LT Cross, Israel CMS Yes LT Francia, Charlotte BOP Yes LT Gallaway, Michael CDC Yes LT Geyer, Rory FDA Yes LT Iturriaga, Luis DHS Yes LT Jamoom, Eric CDC Yes LT Jeisy Scott, Victoria NCIRD Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LT Lucas, Neali FDA Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes

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• Announcement of the 2016 SciPAC Award recipients and congratulations to: o Scientist Mentor of the Year: CDR James Kenney o Junior Scientist of the Year Award: LCDR Mark Miller o Senior Scientist of the Year: CAPT Sally Hu


• Discussion is continuing to standardize recruitment windows for USPHS categories. • Keep an eye out for the distracted driving initiative which is being developed. The TPAC is

proposing an initiative to survey PAC Category Members regarding driving habits and will use the results to promote safe driving habits. The initiative will work with AT&T to have every USPHS officer pledge to not text and drive and to also help communicate safe driving information to communities.

• Be aware that currently the new online leave system in Direct Access will not allow for the cancellation of leave once it is approved by your supervisor. They are working to address the issue.

• SciPAC is now requesting applications for SciPAC voting memberships. The voting membership term lasts three years. Application details have been sent out over the SciPAC listserv.

• We want to thank CAPT David Lau for speaking with SciPAC about the annual AMSUS Meeting. • On behalf of SciPAC, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to our 2016 Award

recipients: o LCDR Miller o CDR Kenney o CAPT Hu


• No updates to report









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o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee has completed review of the nominations and the voting process for the 2016 Junior Scientist of the Year, Senior Scientist of the Year and Scientist Mentor of the Year Awards. Congratulations to all of the winners who were announced by CAPT Sanders during this call. We are currently working on obtaining the plaques to be presented to the award winners as the US Public Health Service Scientific and Training Symposium.


Demissie o OBC:

− One scientist is scheduled to attend OBC in May: LT Tanesha Tutt, (CDC, Atlanta, GA)

− The Career Development subcommittee is in need of volunteers to attend the OBC open house and graduation events. Interested DC area officers can contact LCDR Lana Rossiter for additional information ([email protected]). An e-mail announcement regarding these volunteer events was sent through the listserv today by LCDR Qiao Bobo.

o Training workgroup: − There will be a presentation on the APFT from LCDR Elizabeth Irvin-Barnwell, Community

Studies Team Lead, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, CDC, after the June SciPAC call.


o Category Day is here! It is Wednesday, 18 May 18 2016 at the Renaissance Conference Center in Oklahoma City in Meeting Room 9-10 from 0745-1700 with the social that night at 1830.

o The agenda is available at http://symposium.phscof.org/agenda/201 and at https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/2016categoryday.aspx

o Merchandise will be sold at Category Day - considering aiding the category to bring home some SciPAC swag.

o There will be a drop-in Scientist mentoring session on Tuesday, 17 May 2016 in Meeting Room 6

o The overall symposium page is: http://www.coausphs.org/events/usphs-symposium/ and the theme is "Gimme Five: Building a Better Tomorrow Through Prevention Today."

o We will continue to forward emails about overall symposium events as well.

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o There were 2 new matches made in April with 1 new mentee request still pending and one

additional new mentor volunteer. If you are looking for a mentor or interested in becoming a mentor please email CDR Thomas ([email protected]) or LCDR Cole ([email protected]). As a reminder, existing mentoring agreements expire annually and should be renewed. You can find the renewal form on the mentoring page http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/ of the SciPAC website. Also on the website are the Mentoring Guidebook, a reference guide, and application forms.

o The mentoring subcommittee SOP was revised and is with the EB for review. o There will be two mentoring events held at Category Day during this year’s Symposium in

Oklahoma City. The first is Tuesday morning at 0700-0830 and will be an informal mentoring opportunity with senior officers available to provide advice. Some of these officers will also


http://www.coausphs.org/events/usphs-symposium/



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be recently promoted officers and interested participants are encouraged to bring documents for review (CV, OS, etc.). The second event will be during category day and will be 3-4 table top discussions led by senior scientists. We are soliciting topics for discussion and you may email LCDR Cole ([email protected]) or CDR Thomas ([email protected]) with your suggestions.

o The promotion panel update was provided by LCDR Lana Rossiter. The Promotion Panels are nearing the completion of the first phase of the project. To date, 7 panels interviewing 22 officers have been held. This Friday, May 6th, the final panel of three officers is scheduled. In total, over 25 officers will have been interviewed or provided written responses as part of this effort to elicit feedback about the promotion experience from officers promoted to O-5 in 2013, 2014, and 2105. Once the panels are completed then the second phase of the project, compilation and evaluation of the responses will begin. A report will be prepared and shared specifically with current mentors, to assist with their mentoring role. Additionally, conclusions and learnings will be prepared and presented to SciPAC, with the aim to communicate the results before the end of the operational year.

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o The Policy Review Subcommittee last met on 14 April 2016. Currently, there are no policies

under review. The Subcommittee is interested in hosting a speaker who will inform the PAC about current legislation related to the Corps and relevant policy issues. We hope to host the speaker during a PAC meeting or a separate webinar before the end of the operational year.

o Subgroup has been working to have COA’s COL Jim Currie present (at a future, TBD meeting call) on policy issues and challenges COA is currently working on.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: CDR Anne Marie France o Total Number of Officers in Corps: 6530

− 6-month change: -122 o Number of Scientist Officers: 328

− 6-month change: -3 o Separations since last month:

− One officer (O3, 2.67 years of credit, granted 7 years T and E an entry) o New CAD since last month:

− Patrick High − Tanesha Tutt

o Percent of all Corps Officers: 5.0% − 6-month change: -0.2%

o Scientist officers on Tier 1 or 2 deployment teams: 197 (60%). Only Environmental Health Officers have a larger percentage (62%) participating on Tier 1 or 2 teams. 37% of all Corps officers on a deployment team.



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• Announcement of the 2016 SciPAC Award recipients and congratulations to: o Scientist Mentor of the Year: CDR James Kenney o Junior Scientist of the Year Award: LCDR Mark Miller o Senior Scientist of the Year: CAPT Sally Hu


• Discussion is continuing to standardize recruitment windows for USPHS categories. • Keep an eye out for the distracted driving initiative which is being developed. The TPAC is

proposing an initiative to survey PAC Category Members regarding driving habits and will use the results to promote safe driving habits. The initiative will work with AT&T to have every USPHS officer pledge to not text and drive and to also help communicate safe driving information to communities.

• Be aware that currently the new online leave system in Direct Access will not allow for the cancellation of leave once it is approved by your supervisor. They are working to address the issue.

• SciPAC is now requesting applications for SciPAC voting memberships. The voting membership term lasts three years. Application details have been sent out over the SciPAC listserv.

• We want to thank CAPT David Lau for speaking with SciPAC about the annual AMSUS Meeting. • On behalf of SciPAC, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to our 2016 Award

recipients: o LCDR Miller o CDR Kenney o CAPT Hu


• No updates to report









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o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee has completed review of the nominations and the voting process for the 2016 Junior Scientist of the Year, Senior Scientist of the Year and Scientist Mentor of the Year Awards. Congratulations to all of the winners who were announced by CAPT Sanders during this call. We are currently working on obtaining the plaques to be presented to the award winners as the US Public Health Service Scientific and Training Symposium.


Demissie o OBC:

− One scientist is scheduled to attend OBC in May: LT Tanesha Tutt, (CDC, Atlanta, GA)

− The Career Development subcommittee is in need of volunteers to attend the OBC open house and graduation events. Interested DC area officers can contact LCDR Lana Rossiter for additional information ([email protected]). An e-mail announcement regarding these volunteer events was sent through the listserv today by LCDR Qiao Bobo.

o Training workgroup: − There will be a presentation on the APFT from LCDR Elizabeth Irvin-Barnwell, Community

Studies Team Lead, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, CDC, after the June SciPAC call.


o Category Day is here! It is Wednesday, 18 May 18 2016 at the Renaissance Conference Center in Oklahoma City in Meeting Room 9-10 from 0745-1700 with the social that night at 1830.

o The agenda is available at http://symposium.phscof.org/agenda/201 and at https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/2016categoryday.aspx

o Merchandise will be sold at Category Day - considering aiding the category to bring home some SciPAC swag.

o There will be a drop-in Scientist mentoring session on Tuesday, 17 May 2016 in Meeting Room 6

o The overall symposium page is: http://www.coausphs.org/events/usphs-symposium/ and the theme is "Gimme Five: Building a Better Tomorrow Through Prevention Today."

o We will continue to forward emails about overall symposium events as well.

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o There were 2 new matches made in April with 1 new mentee request still pending and one

additional new mentor volunteer. If you are looking for a mentor or interested in becoming a mentor please email CDR Thomas ([email protected]) or LCDR Cole ([email protected]). As a reminder, existing mentoring agreements expire annually and should be renewed. You can find the renewal form on the mentoring page http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/ of the SciPAC website. Also on the website are the Mentoring Guidebook, a reference guide, and application forms.

o The mentoring subcommittee SOP was revised and is with the EB for review. o There will be two mentoring events held at Category Day during this year’s Symposium in

Oklahoma City. The first is Tuesday morning at 0700-0830 and will be an informal mentoring opportunity with senior officers available to provide advice. Some of these officers will also


http://www.coausphs.org/events/usphs-symposium/



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be recently promoted officers and interested participants are encouraged to bring documents for review (CV, OS, etc.). The second event will be during category day and will be 3-4 table top discussions led by senior scientists. We are soliciting topics for discussion and you may email LCDR Cole ([email protected]) or CDR Thomas ([email protected]) with your suggestions.

o The promotion panel update was provided by LCDR Lana Rossiter. The Promotion Panels are nearing the completion of the first phase of the project. To date, 7 panels interviewing 22 officers have been held. This Friday, May 6th, the final panel of three officers is scheduled. In total, over 25 officers will have been interviewed or provided written responses as part of this effort to elicit feedback about the promotion experience from officers promoted to O-5 in 2013, 2014, and 2105. Once the panels are completed then the second phase of the project, compilation and evaluation of the responses will begin. A report will be prepared and shared specifically with current mentors, to assist with their mentoring role. Additionally, conclusions and learnings will be prepared and presented to SciPAC, with the aim to communicate the results before the end of the operational year.

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o The Policy Review Subcommittee last met on 14 April 2016. Currently, there are no policies

under review. The Subcommittee is interested in hosting a speaker who will inform the PAC about current legislation related to the Corps and relevant policy issues. We hope to host the speaker during a PAC meeting or a separate webinar before the end of the operational year.

o Subgroup has been working to have COA’s COL Jim Currie present (at a future, TBD meeting call) on policy issues and challenges COA is currently working on.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: CDR Anne Marie France o Total Number of Officers in Corps: 6530

− 6-month change: -122 o Number of Scientist Officers: 328

− 6-month change: -3 o Separations since last month:

− One officer (O3, 2.67 years of credit, granted 7 years T and E an entry) o New CAD since last month:

− Patrick High − Tanesha Tutt

o Percent of all Corps Officers: 5.0% − 6-month change: -0.2%

o Scientist officers on Tier 1 or 2 deployment teams: 197 (60%). Only Environmental Health Officers have a larger percentage (62%) participating on Tier 1 or 2 teams. 37% of all Corps officers on a deployment team.



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o Scientist officers meeting basic readiness standards: 294 (93%); 22 not qualified and not

exempt o Range for all categories: 83% (vet) to 98% (dentists) o Number of Scientist officers not meeting basic readiness requirements or exempt by rank:

− 11/91 (12%) O6 − 4/87 (5%) O5 − 5/97 (5%) O4 − 2/53 (4%) O3

o Data sources: DCCPR Readiness Report sent 4/22/16, 10/1/15, and 4/1/15

Updates

o Recruitment − LT Danny Benbassat continues to work with DCCPR, Agency Liaisons, and boarded

applicants to assist applicants in finding positions. He has created a Google Groups forum where potential employers can review applicant information, including CVs. On a monthly basis, he checks in with each of the boarded applicants. Of 7 applicants boarded in the past year, 1 is converting from civil service in BOP, 1 is no longer pursuing a commission, and 5 need to find positions by May or July.

o Retention − Best Kept Secrets work group is trying to coordinate with our EIS class liaisons to

develop materials that will be targeted to recruiting and retaining EIS officers. Unfortunately, it’s been difficult to connect, but stay tuned.

− State of the Scientists survey had an 80% response rate! Thank you to everyone who took the survey. We are currently in the throes of primary analysis, led by CDR Anne Marie France, which will presented for the first time publicly at the COA Category Day. Of note, other categories, including the Vet Pac and the Physicians PAC are also releasing similar annual surveys.

− LT Alice Shumate has done a tremendous job with the probability model to estimate retention and recruitment trends with the limited data we have been able to obtain. If

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ANYONE happens to have reliable data for the number of Scientist officers by rank for the years 2005-2012, please contact me at [email protected]. That piece of data will strengthen the model.

o Healthy Scientists − The Healthy Scientists bulletin is running a little behind schedule this month and will be

released shortly.

g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o The call for nominations for Scientist PAC Voting Membership was send out yesterday via

the listserv. Voting membership is a three year term that would begin on September 1st. Any Scientist interested in serving as a voting member should consider submitting a self-nomination. Nomination packages are due to me on Friday, June 3rd, and should include the nomination form that was included in the email sent out, along with the current CV summary page and a cover letter of 500 words or less explaining why the officer is interested in serving. Please email me at [email protected] should you have further questions or need additional information.

o The R&M Subcommittee members have reviewed the revision of the SOP and a final version incorporating everyone’s edits is being generated. Once finalized, this will be sent to the EB for review and approval.


− No S&P call in May due to USPHS Symposium o Journal Club Team

− A successful call on Tuesday, 12 April 2016 by LCDR Matt Lozier from the CDC who spoke on Reproductive and Sexual Health Priority Area of the National Prevention Strategy and the article “Association between Zika virus and microcephaly in French Polynesia, 2013-2015: a retrospective study”







i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce o AMSUS

CAPT David Lau from the PHS AMSUS Planning Committee will join us at the end of our call to discuss more about the annual AMSUS meeting that will take place in the Washington, DC area November 29-December 2nd this year. Please stay on the line for a few minutes longer




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to learn more about AMSUS and the interesting content of this international / inter-service meeting. The Planning Committee met last week, and there are just a couple updates: 1) PHS will be leading a plenary session on the domestic response to Zika; given the ongoing nature of the response, leadership will take stock of where we are closer to the meeting time to determine what the specific focus of the session will be. 2) The Planning Committee is recruiting volunteers for several positions, including for Communications, continuing education unit and abstract review, and award nomination peer reviewers. If you’d like additional information about these opportunities, please contact LCDR Erin Nichols ([email protected]).

o FDA CC Awareness Day: SciPAC was represented by four officers during the FDA Commissioned Corps Awareness Day on April 24th. These officers talked with fellow officers about the work that Scientists are doing within FDA as well as other outside activities. They also talked with several civilians who were interested in joining the Commissioned Corps. These individuals were provided with information and contacts to explore the possibility of joining. Overall the event was well attended and provided a good opportunity to network with fellow officers and civilians alike.

o Social Events − DC. Led by LCDR Neil Bonzagni

Please join your fellow Scientists officers for a fun-filled evening of food, drink and good company at Matchbox in Rockville (1699 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852). Take this opportunity to rub elbows with your compatriots in the greater DC area, and share your plans for upcoming excellent adventures this summer.

Please RSVP to LCDR Neil Bonzagni: [email protected] When: ~1730-21ish, Thursday, 9 June 2016 Hope to see you there!

− Atlanta. Led by LCDR Kamil Barbour Please join your fellow Scientist officers for trivia night at Mellow

Mushroom. Take this opportunity to meet with your mentor or mentee, meet newly-commissioned Scientist officers, catch up with friends, and showoff your vast knowledge. Trivia night starts at 8:30, but it is best to arrive earlier to get a table. Please RSVP to LCDR Kamil Barbour, [email protected]

When: ~1945 to 22ish, Wednesday, 11 May 2016 Where: Mellow Mushroom - North Druid Hills, 1679 LaVista Rd, Atlanta, GA

30329 o Be sure to visit SciPAC poster at Symposium


o As a reminder, the new Scientist website has gone live as of March 10. The new website is now hosted on the OSG’s server, and can be found at https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist. From this point on, no further modifications will be made to the old website. The old website has been set up to re-route to our new website.

o All links on the new website have now been fixed. We ask that any Scientist officer who finds a mistake, formatting error, or broken link, to please inform CDR Jacqueline Sram ([email protected]) or LCDR Jason Wilken ([email protected]).

o Congratulations to our 2016 award recipients. Check out their bio’s on our Award Recipients webpage, https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/awards-recipients.aspx. The biographies for our



https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist



https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/awards-recipients.aspx

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2016 Scientist Responder, LCDR Jason Wilken, and LCDR Mark Miller, 2016 Junior Scientist, is already posted. We will link the remaining photos and bio’s as we receive them.

o Please also take a look at our Category Day Agenda https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/2016categoryday.aspx .

o The new website is current and contains all recent update requests. We encourage all the subcommittees to submit their information for posting. Please contact CDR Sram or LCDR Wilken if you have any questions.

8) Liaison Reports

• COA: CAPT Diana Elson − COA is supporting USPHS Officers detailed to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) with

regard to alleged discrimination of USPHS Officers based on membership in a uniformed service in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA)

− Following legislation that may impact USPHS Officers; see the May Frontline for highlights. Remember if you are a COA member, please communicate with COA on legislative matters using your personal email accounts and equipment (non-government)

− Some results of the recent COF “Study of the Future of the PHS Commissioned Corps and Surgeon General” are published in the May issue of Frontline

− If attending the USPHS Symposium, please stop by the COA booth − In coordination with the Policy subcommittee, COL Currie is checking his availability to

address SciPAC on an upcoming call

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − JOAG is mainly busy preparing for the COF Symposium, so a couple of quick reminders: The JOAG General meeting at Symposium will be on Tuesday 17 May 2016, from 1230-

1400. All Junior Officers are invited—please come and get an update on JOAG and hear about the fantastic junior officers who are receiving awards this year.

The JOAG Room Share and Car Share program is available through an online google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JMgKZC0L5J4yD11AgNXDRMmdSMSMptLjJVBc_ImKjZo/edit#gid=0

Also, please stop by the JOAG Uniform Inspection Booth and Junior Officer Career Enhancement Booth in Oklahoma City.

− JOAG has new merchandise available, including a new moisture-wicking t-shirt with a map of PHS deployment locations, and offered at a great price. You can visit the online store (http://mkt.com/usphs-joag) or buy them at the Symposium.


− PsyPAG is open to all Psychologists, not just clinical psychologists. Developmental and Research psychologists are invited to join.

− PsyPAG recently completed our strategic survey of members with a 50% response rate. Responses are still being analyzed. Stand by for the results at a future SciPAC meeting.

− We are hard at work building our directory of PHS Psychologists working with current members and DCCPR to capture all new psychologists to the Corps and make sure they are included.

− PsyPAG announced the recipients of the Career Psychologist Awards: Early Career Psychologists is LCDR William MacNulty. Senior Career Psychologist is CDR William Satterfield. Record breaking number of nominations


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JMgKZC0L5J4yD11AgNXDRMmdSMSMptLjJVBc_ImKjZo/edit#gid=0

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JMgKZC0L5J4yD11AgNXDRMmdSMSMptLjJVBc_ImKjZo/edit#gid=0

http://mkt.com/usphs-joag

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Very competitive group of nominees Thanks to all who submitted Thanks to LCDR Arlin Hatch and his Awards team for their hard work


• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou − 2016 MOLC Awards Ceremony will be hold 1230-1345 on Tuesday, 17 May 2016, and 13

awardees will be recognized at the ceremony. Please join if you can. − MOLC booth will be open on Wednesday 18 May 2016 1100 – 1500 and on Thursday 800 –

1500. If you are interested in volunteering, please sign up for a timeslot via your own CMAGs.


• Our next SciPAC call will be 07 June 2016.

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 07 June 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes June 2016 Page 1 of 10


Tuesday, 7 June 2016

1200–1300 (EDT)










CAPT Robbins, Nisha ? CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair ? CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative Yes CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons




LCDR Shumate, Alice JOAG Liaison Excused


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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Benally, Christine J. IHS Yes CAPT Blanck, Heidi CDC Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Krauthamer, Victor FDA Yes CAPT Murry, Michael BOP Yes CAPT Nelle, Timothy FDA Yes CAPT Thoroughman, Doug CDC Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Bhagwat, Aditya DoD Yes CDR Boehmer, Tegan CDC Yes CDR Carroll, Dianna D. CDC Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CDR France, Anne Marie CDC Yes CDR Geissler, Aimee CDC Yes CDR Harcourt, Brian CDC Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR Maddox, Charlene NIH Yes CDR McCollum, Andrea CDC Yes CDR Newland, Matthew HRSA Yes CDR Powell, Tracy HHS Yes CDR Sancho, Alfredo FDA Yes CDR Sauber-Schatz, Erin K. CDC Yes CDR Tate, Jacqueline CDC Yes CDR Yip, Fuyuen CDC Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Bjork, Adam CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Bonzagni, Neil CDC Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Gaines, Joanna CDC Yes LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Halldin, Cara CDC Yes LCDR Henderson, Tamara FDA Yes LCDR Houston, Keisha CDC Yes LCDR Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ATSDR Yes LCDR Ko, Jean CDC Yes LCDR Miller, Leigh Ann CDC Yes LCDR Miller, Mark EPA Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR O'Neill, Eduardo CDC Yes LCDR Parker, Erin CDC Yes

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Rank Participant Agency Present LCDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes LCDR Perez, Cesar FDA Yes LCDR Perrine, Cria Gregory CDC Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes LCDR Sandhu, Sukhminder FDA Yes LCDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes LCDR Schwitters, Amee CDC Yes LCDR Spikes, Pilgrim CDC Yes LCDR Steele, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LCDR Zucco, Julia CMS Yes LT Benbassat, Danny SAMHSA Yes LT Bowen, Virginia CDC Yes LT Brown, Jorielle SAMHSA Yes LT Francia, Charlotte BOP Yes LT Goodwin, Bradley Patrick CDC Yes LT Hickey, Andrew OHA Yes LT Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LT Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LT Iturriaga, Luis DHS Yes LT Jarvis-Durham, Lisa CMS Yes LT Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Mpofu (Johnson), Jonetta CDC Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle HHS Yes LT Wright, Marcienne ASPR Yes

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• The chair of the CPO board will be RADM Randall Gardner • CPOs will undertake issues such as appointment standards, medical waiver policy and

deployment process transparency to bring processes up to speed. • UC for USPHS Symposium include those who volunteered to help and speakers • DCCPR is shooting to release promotion results in mid-late June


• SCIPAC wants to extend their appreciation for the hard work and effort of CDR Toblin, LCDR Green, and the entire Category Day Subcommittee for a successful SciPAC Category Day at the 2016 USPHS Symposium. We would also like to thank all presenters and speakers who represented SciPAC throughout the Symposium schedule.

• The eOPF will be moving from the traditional fax line to an online scanning option this year. That is good news for those of us with 20-year old fax machines that have seen better days.

• We would like to thank LCDR Irwin-Barnwell for her informational presentation on the new APFT guidelines and to CDR Steele for organizing the presentation.

• During July’s call, we have another special presenter: Col Currie will speak to us about COA goals and activities.

4) Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Adjemian • No updates to report


• We had 83 Scientist Officers attend last month’s SciPAC meeting. The attendance is low possibly because of the EIS conference during that time.

• If you have any information on events or relevant messages that you wish to distribute to the SciPAC listserv, please email it to me along with any important details to include in the body of the email ([email protected]).






a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CDR Tony Satterfield o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee has provided the bios and photos for all of the award

winners to the SciPAC Website Subcommittee for posting on the SciPAC website.



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− Four scientists are scheduled to attend OBC in June: LT Alaine Knipes, (CDC, Atlanta, GA) LT Iman Martin, (CDC, Baltimore, MD) LT Julie O’Donnell, (CDC, Rockville, MD LT Colleen Scott, (CDC, Atlanta, GA)

− The Career Development subcommittee is in need of volunteers to attend the OBC open house and graduation events. Interested DC area officers can contact LCDR Lana Rossiter for additional information ([email protected]).

o Training workgroup: − There will be a presentation on the new APFT from LCDR Elizabeth Irvin-Barnwell,

Community Studies Team Lead, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry after the SciPAC call today.

c) Category Day: CDR Robin Toblin; Co-Chair: LCDR Seth Green o Category Day was a great success. We had over 40 officers attend and anecdotal evidence

suggests that people had a great time and found the day useful. o People seemed to appreciate the variety of new offerings such as mentoring, networking,

and a state-of-the science talk o Mini golf competition was also fierce with LCDR Alice Shumate emerging as the winner o Please fill out our survey by 15 July 2016 to help us evaluate this year's category day and

improve next year's: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FR8C5DG o Next year's conference will be in Chattanooga, TN from 5-8 June 2017

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas

o One new match was made in May and there is still one pending mentee with unique circumstances that we hope to match soon. If you are looking for a mentor or interested in becoming a mentor please email CDR Thomas ([email protected]) or LCDR Cole ([email protected]). As a reminder, existing mentoring agreements expire annually and should be renewed to ensure the mentors receive a letter of appreciation. You can find the renewal form on the mentoring page http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/ of the SciPAC website. Also on the website are the Mentoring Guidebook, a reference guide, and application forms.

o The promotion panels are completed for all recently promoted O5 officers with a total of 22 interviewed officers and 3 written responses. The group is currently evaluating the results and will generate a white paper to summarize the data. On first glance, early promotion preparation seems to be strongly associated with success, while other indicators were variable. Once the data are analyzed and shared with leadership the information will be provided to mentors to assist them in counseling mentees. The information will also be shared with the SciPAC at-large community. Target for completion is the end of the operational year.

o Two mentoring events were held at Category Day in Oklahoma City and were a success. The Tuesday 0700 session was sparsely attended but mentees expressed interest in continuing the event next year. The Category Day round top discussions were well attended but the survey results are not available yet to evaluate the event’s success. Ad-hoc feedback indicated the event was well received.


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e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o During the July 2016 SCIPAC call, COA’s COL Jim Currie will give a short presentation on

policy initiatives facing the Corps. f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): LCDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: CDR Anne Marie

France o Total Number of Officers in Corps: 6558 o Number of Scientist Officers: 316 (4.8%) o Separations, year to date: 9

− O-3 2 − O-4 1 − O-5 1 − O-6 4 − O-7 1

Grand Total 9 o New CAD, year to date: 5

o Scientist officers meeting basic readiness standards: 220 (68%); 108 not qualified and not

exempt o Range for all categories: 58% (vet) to 77% (dentists)

Data sources: DCCPR Readiness Report sent May 2016, Blue Book 6/6/16 Updates o Recruitment

− LT Danny Benbassat continues to work with DCCPR, Agency Liaisons, and boarded applicants to assist applicants in finding positions. He has created a Google Groups forum where potential employers can review applicant information, including CVs. On a monthly basis, he checks in with each of the boarded applicants. Two boarded applicants need to find positions by the end of June.

− 11 Scientist officers have participated in the last three OBC courses this year. Eight of 11 entered Corps through EIS; 2 through open enrollment period and one converted from a civil servant position.

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o Retention − LTs Sharoda Dasgupta and Hilda Razzaghi are creating a resource to help incoming EIS

Scientist officers decide whether they want to join Corps and to assist Scientist officers at the end of the 2-year EIS fellowship determine if they want to retain their Commission.

− Data from the State of the Scientists survey and probability modeling were presented at COA Symposium. CDR Anne Marie France and LCDR Alice Shumate will continue to perform analyses on the survey data and refine the model as more data become available.

o Healthy Scientists − The Healthy Scientists bulletin was released last month.

g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o This past month the Rules and Membership subcommittee accepted nominations for SciPAC

voting membership, the deadline for which was 3 June 2016. Again, this is to serve a three year term as a SciPAC voting member beginning on September 1st, the start of the new SciPAC calendar year. Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination package. We received 29 nominations for 6 available positions. Over the next several weeks we will review all complete nomination packages received, and a list of finalists will be generated and submitted to the CPO, and ultimately to the OSG for final approval. Only once approval is obtained by the OSG will all nominees be notified of their status.

h) Science: CDR Jeffrey Goodie; Co-Chair: CAPT Ryan Novak o Journal Club Team (LCDRs Tyus and Wilken)

− The next call will be 28 June 2016 Journal Club call will address the review article titled “The Course of Mental Health Disorders After a Disaster: Predictors and Comorbidity.”

− Our Subject Matter Expert will be LCDR Luz Rivera from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

− An announcement of this presentation and a PDF of the article will be distributed before the presentation.

− Details: To Join the Journal Club call, go to: https://fda.webex.com/fda/j.php?MTID=mec394b0ca5d8fa1d0e03b26b2db5e4eb

− Toll-Free-Number: 1-855-828-1770 Participant Passcode: 815 438 176 − POC: Please contact LCDRs Cesar Perez ([email protected]), Nadra Tyus

([email protected]), or Jason Wilken ([email protected]) if you have any questions about the SciPAC Journal Club.



Contributions of U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Scientist Officers”

https://fda.webex.com/fda/j.php?MTID=mec394b0ca5d8fa1d0e03b26b2db5e4eb

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o Biography and Publications Team − Send Completed 2014 and 2015 work by emailing any publications, books or book

chapters, government reports and presentations (from any venue including conferences, media, meetings, etc.) to [email protected] with “2014-15 bibliography submission” in the subject line.



i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce o The Scientist Newsletter Team is pleased to share the spring edition of The Scientist Officer!

This was just distributed to all Scientists about one hour ago. The Scientist Officer Newsletter is looking for submissions in the form of an articles (e.g., symposium articles), announcements, family or social events, and/or photos to The Scientist Officer Newsletter for the Summer Issue. The Submission deadline for the summer 2016 issue is June 21.

o For PHS Officers interested in presenting in one of the oldest and most prestigious Uniformed Service conferences in the United States, The 2016 AMSUS Annual Continuing Education Meeting will be held at the Gaylord Hotel, National Harbor, MD, 29 November – 2 December 2016. The deadline for Poster Submission is Friday, 8 July 2016, 11:59pm ET. A final reminder email was sent out on 3 June 2016, which contains more information about the process.

o There will be scientist social in DC at Matchbox in Rockville on 9 June 2016. LCDR Neil Bonzagni is the POC for this event.

o Scientists from Atlanta met for a social on 11 May 2016, which was trivia night at the Mellow Mushroom. I am happy to report that we finished first in the trivia competition.


o Congratulations to Scientist officers graduating from OBC 86. Their photo has been added to the Website, https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/obc-graduates.aspx.

o We have posted four of the Category Day presentation files received. Please visit the site to obtain copies, https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/2016categoryday.aspx.

o We posted the SciPAC May meeting minutes but that will be published on the production site in the next week.

o All links on the website have now been fixed. We ask that any Scientist officer who finds a mistake, formatting error, or broken link, to please inform CDR Jacqueline Sram ([email protected]) or LCDR Jason Wilken ([email protected]).

o The new website is current and we are setting up the bios for our Senior Scientist and Mentor of the Year awardees. We encourage all the subcommittees to submit their information for posting. Be aware that postings will now take 2-3 weeks. In addition to reviewing and editing documents to make them section 508 compliant, the actual push into the production site is performed by a separate group in the OSG/Division for Systems Integration (DSI). Please contact CDR Sram or LCDR Wilken if you have any questions.

8) Liaison Reports

• COA: CAPT Diana Elson




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− COL Jim Currie is invited to present to SciPAC during the 5 July 2016 meeting; he will discuss the COA legislative and policy agenda

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − JOAG General Meeting at USPHS Symposium was very well attended, and included

remarks from the Surgeon General, RADM Trent-Adams, and the CPOs, including CAPT Sanders. We really appreciated their interest in and enthusiasm for junior officers.

− Thanks also to everyone who stopped by and/or helped with our career enhancement booth and uniform inspection booth, bought JOAG merchandise, and to those who participated in the JOAG morning walk at Symposium.

− The Office of the Surgeon General recently surveyed junior officers on their concerns about the Corps and suggestions for improvements or changes they’d like to see. Thanks to everyone who participated; JOAG has received results from the OSG and is looking at what we can do to help address gaps and concerns.

− Our next Journeyman Speaker Series event will be 8 July 2016 at 1300 Eastern. It will be the first in a series of 3 JSS presentations on PHS deployment teams. July’s presentation is: PHS Tier I & II Deployment Teams: Highlighting Roles of Each & Opportunities for Junior Officers to Get Involved Part I: NIST-B, APHT-2, and CAP-3. Conference Dial in: 1-302-202-1106; Conference Passcode: 825385.


− Last meeting was held on 1 June 2016. Guest Speaker was CDR Jose Gomez, who spoke about his role as the only PHS

psychologist assigned to the Coast Guard. His position is a non-clinical one, that includes providing quality oversight of the Behavioral Health services provided "in the field." Only 6 psychologists at Category Day this year. Low turnout may have been a

combination of factors, to include, location not being a hub for PHS officers, lack of funding by Agencies, and the absence of CEs for psychologists.

− PsyPAG Strategic Survey, a few themes: Respondents were overwhelmingly supportive of all psychologists being moved to one

category (either Scientist or HSO), and supportive of the forming of a separate Mental Health category. 35% of respondents indicated that they were American Board of Professional

Psychology (ABPP) certified. This certification is not a requirement, but a mark of excellence. Only <5% of psychologists nationally are ABPP certified. The fact that 35% of our respondents are ABPP certified is a testament to the professionalism of our Officers. 85% of respondents said that they learned about the PHS from a colleague

− PsyPAG Newsletter - 2nd issue will be distributed at the end of June or the beginning of July.

− PsyPAG motto - we have gathered submissions for the PsyPAG motto and will be sending out a Survey Monkey this month for members to vote.

− PsyPAG Facebook page is now active. Search USPHS PsyPAG to join. − PsyPAG website is now operational. Check us out: https://ccmis.usphs.gov/osg/hso/pags-

psypag.aspx. 9) Other Business, Questions, Comments

• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou

https://ccmis.usphs.gov/osg/hso/pags-psypag.aspx

https://ccmis.usphs.gov/osg/hso/pags-psypag.aspx

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− The 2016 Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC) held its monthly meeting on 24 May 2016. The meeting was very brief due to the seminar, the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (the National CLAS Standards) presentation with intro by VADM Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General and Dr. J. Nadine Gracia, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health and the Director for the Office of Minority Health. The MOLC leadership congratulated on all team members on the success of holding the 2016 MOLC Awards Ceremony and the MOLC booth during the 2016 USPHS Scientific and Training Symposium.

10) LCDR Elizabeth Irvin-Barnwell, APFT Presentation (Slides Distributed via SciPAC listserv)


• Our next SciPAC call will be 5 July 2016.

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 5 July 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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SciPAC Meeting Minutes July 2016 Page 1 of 9


Tuesday, 5 July 2016

1200–1300 (EDT)







CDR Breiding, Matthew COF Liaison Excused

Voting Members CDR Bodart, Jennifer Career Development Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused LCDR Cole, Jessica Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Frasca, Dominic Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Goodie, Jeffrey Science Subcommittee Chair Yes LCDR Green, Seth Category Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CAPT Novak, Ryan Science Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment, Retention & Readiness


CAPT Robbins, Nisha Excused CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CAPT Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative Yes CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Yes

Non-voting Liaisons






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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Clayton, Mark DoD Yes CAPT Daugherty, Jon FDA Yes CAPT Dobmeyer, Anne C. DoD Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Lawrence, Theresa HHS Yes CAPT Wheat, Ben BOP Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Bhagwat, Aditya DoD Yes CDR Cui, Minglei FDA Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR Maddox, Charlene NIH Yes CDR Parks Brown, Sharyn CDC Yes CDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes CDR Sancho, Alfredo FDA Yes CDR Tate, Jacqueline CDC Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Barradas, Danielle CDC Yes LCDR Bjork, Adam CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Gaines, Joanna CDC Yes LCDR Geyer, Rory FDA Yes LCDR Gieraltowski, Laura CDC Yes LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LCDR Huang, David CDC Yes LCDR Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LCDR Jamoom, Eric CDC Yes LCDR Ko, Jean CDC Yes LCDR Laufer Halpin, Alison CDC Yes LCDR Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LCDR Lu, Xiaowu FDA Yes LCDR Miller, Leigh Ann CDC Yes LCDR Miller, Mark EPA Yes LCDR Mpofu (Johnson), Jonetta CDC Yes LCDR Nichols, Erin CDC Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR O'Neill, Eduardo CDC Yes LCDR Perez, Cesar FDA Yes LCDR Rivera, Luz FDA Yes

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Rank Participant Agency Present LCDR Slayton, Rachel B. CDC Yes LCDR Steffen, Scott FDA Yes LCDR Tyus, Nadra HRSA Yes LCDR Vagi, Sara CDC Yes LCDR Walters, Maroya CDC Yes LCDR Walters, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Wu, K. Geoffrey FDA Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LCDR Zucco, Julia CMS Yes LCDR Blackburn, Tajah DHS Yes LT Beard, John Doyle CDC Yes LT Benbassat, Danny SAMHSA Yes LT Bowen, Virginia CDC Yes LT Caballero, Jason FDA Yes LT Francia, Charlotte BOP Yes LT Gallaway, Michael CDC Yes LT Goodwin, Bradley Patrick CDC Yes LT Jeisy Scott, Victoria NCIRD Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Knipes, Alaine Kathryn CDC Yes LT Lucas, Neali FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Scott, Colleen CDC Yes LT Wang, Teresa Wei CDC Yes LT Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle HHS Yes LT Wright, Marcienne ASPR Yes

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• I would like to congratulate all scientist officers that were recently promoted! For officers who were not promoted this cycle and would like additional guidance, please reach out to a senior officer for guidance which could prove helpful for the next promotion package. If you are having difficulty identifying someone, please contact CDR Murphy, the Mentoring Subcommittee, or any senior officer with whom you are comfortable with.

• There will be an open recruitment for the scientist category this September, 2016. If you know an officer who is interested in joining the scientist category, this is the opportunity to apply. Additional information can be found on the USPHS website.

• The SciPAC Executive Board would like to thank Col. Currie for joining the July SciPAC call to provide interesting updates about the COA. If you missed the presentation I encourage you to review Col. Currie's PowerPoint presentation sent out by listserv prior to the call.

3) Special presentation by COL Jim Currie on COA Legislative and Policy Agenda

4) Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Adjemian • I will share more information on the voting member selection process with the Rules and

Membership Subcommittee update, but I just want to send a reminder to all current voting members that the next Executive Board election will be held as soon as the new voting members selection is finalized. Please take the time to consider running for an elected position in the 2016-2017 SciPAC year. The open positions include Vice Chair (who is also the Chair-elect for the following year), Executive Secretary, and COF Liaison. You can learn more on the roles and responsibilities of these positions through the SciPAC website and SOP. Also, feel free to reach out to the current officers in these roles if you have any specific questions. This is a great way to serve the PAC. More information will be sent to all voting members via email as soon as we hear back from the OSG.

5) Executive Secretary Report: LCDR Qiao Bobo • We had 96 Scientist Officers attend last month’s SciPAC meeting. The attendance is low possibly

because of the EIS conference during that time. • If you have any information on events or relevant messages that you wish to distribute to the





6) COF Liaison Report: CDR Matt Breiding • Our SciPAC balance is $1340.32



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7) Subcommittee Reports a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CAPT Tony Satterfield

o No updates to report.

b) Career Development: CDR Michael Smith; Co-Chairs: CDR Jennifer Bodart, LCDR Zewditu Demissie o With feedback from the SciPAC Chair and Vice Chair, the Career Development

Subcommittee has developed guidance for officers regarding collateral duties. The document will be reviewed by the Executive Board and shared with officers once approved.


o The survey for Category Day is due July 15. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FR8C5DG o Please submit your information to CDR Kanta Sircar ([email protected]) as requested for the

unit commendation medal that will be submitted for nomination for all of those who were involved in Category Day either on the subcommittee or as a speaker.

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o Two new mentor/mentee matches were made in June and there are an additional 4

matches pending. There are currently 44 active matches for 2016 with an additional 19 agreements from 2015 that have expired and are being assessed. If you are looking for a mentor or interested in becoming a mentor please email CDR Thomas ([email protected]) or LCDR Cole ([email protected]). As a reminder, existing mentoring agreements expire annually and should be renewed to ensure the mentors receive a letter of appreciation. You can find the renewal form on the mentoring page http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/ of the SciPAC website. Also on the website are the Mentoring Guidebook, a reference guide, and application forms.

o The promotion panel team has done a preliminary evaluation of the panel interviews and will be writing up a summary of the observations. The formatting of the final report is to be determined but will be provided to SciPAC leadership around the end of the operational year. The information will be shared with current mentors and the SciPAC community at large.

o Input from the Category Day survey is still pending and will be used to guide next year’s mentoring events and topics. Please provide any suggestions or comments within the survey or email LCDR Cole ([email protected]) directly.

o The revised Mentoring Subcommittee SOP is completed and will be uploaded to the website soon.

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o COA’s COL Jim Currie gave a short presentation on policy initiatives facing the Corps at

today’s SciPAC meeting. f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): CDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: CDR Anne Marie

France o Recruitment

− The recruitment working group, led by LT Danny Benbassat, has been hard at work. During June, LT Benbassat met with four new Scientist Officer in OBC 89 LT Alaine Knipes LT Iman Martin LT Julie O'Donnell LT Colleen Scott

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FR8C5DG






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− OBC Snapshot

−

O − Sent information to three potential recruits − Continued to forward job announcements to boarded applicants. Out of the seven

boarded applicants: One of seven (Micheal Shields) is a expecting a conversion from BOP Three of seven were not able to find a job or no longer interested One of seven (Marleen Welsh) received as signed PHS Form 1662 on 5 May 2016

from DHS The remaining two need to find a job by 24 July 2016

− Disseminated the Google Group link to the SciPAC on 13 June 2016. Seven Officers joined the group.

o Retention

− The Best Kept Secrets working group is seeking a volunteer with Microsoft Publisher skills who can help convert the current document into one that can easily be modified and converted to a PDF. Please contact Anne Purfield at [email protected] if you are interested in this opportunity.

− We’re working with the CDR Kamil Barbour to organize a Scientist Social to welcome new call to active duty Scientist officers on 13 July 2016 in Atlanta.

o Readiness − The last readiness check was June 30 and we haven’t received an update from DCCPR on

our status yet. − The Healthy Scientist Bulletin will be distributed this week. −

g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi o I want to thank all the officers who submitted nominations for SciPAC voting membership

for the 2016-2019 term. We received 29 completed applications, which were reviewed by our voting member selection group. After a challenging review process due to the many highly competitive applications received, a final list of six selected officers was generated and submitted to the OSG. All nominees will be notified of their status pending final approval by the OSG, which will hopefully be within the month.


− The presentation went really well. LCDR Rivera presented on The Course of Mental Health Disorders. After a Disaster: Predictors and Comorbidity and had a discussion at the end. She did a great job.

− Information about the August meeting will be distributed through the listserv. − POC: Please contact LCDRs Cesar Perez ([email protected]), Nadra Tyus


o Science and Practice Team (LCDR Cunningham)

OBC 86 OBC 87 OBC 88 OBC 89 Total EIS 2 5 1 4 12 Open Enrollment 1 1 2 Federal Conversion 1 1 Total 3 7 1 4 15





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− Our next S&P call is scheduled for Tuesday, 19 July 2016 at 1200-1300 EDT. − The speaker will be CDR Tracy Powell with CDC’s Office of Grants Services and she'll

discuss the regulatory requirements associated with managing and reviewing federal grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts at CDC.

− The title of the talk is: CDC’s Grant Management Process: International Perspective. − Call-in Number: 866-782-0573 Participant Passcode: 2214354.



Contributions of U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Scientist Officers”. o Biography and Publications Team




i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce o Newsletter

− Spring Newsletter has been posted to SciPAC website − The Editorial board has extended the deadline for submission of articles for the summer

issue of the newsletter to 15 July 2016 (which is a week from Friday). − All articles – whether related to the symposium, personal milestones, photos, scientific

contributions, Officership – should be submitted on/before 15 July 2016 to the newsletter email address ([email protected]).

o Social Events − CDR Kamil Barbour and CDR Anne Purfield will be organizing an Atlanta Social for incoming

Scientist EISOs this month in Atlanta. They will post details to the listserv soon. o Key AMSUS sessions that might be of interest to Scientists

− Joint Humanitarian Operations Course (JHOC) – 30 November-01 December 2016 (All Day) − Rx for Change –Tobacco Cessation Intervention– 02 December 2016 1300-1700 − National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Service in Health and

Health Care for Emergency Responders– 02 December 2016 0800-1700 − HHS ASPR/OEM Deployment Readiness Display – 28 November 2016 − If you’d like additional information about these opportunities, please contact LCDR Erin

Nichols ([email protected]).

j) Website: CDR Jacqueline Sram; Co-Chair: LCDR Jason Wilken o Congratulations to Scientist officers graduating from OBC 88. Their photo has been added

to the Website, https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/obc-graduates.aspx o We have posted the APFT presentation by LCDR Irvin-Barnwell to the Website, at

https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/documents/APFT-updated-2016.pdf





https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/obc-graduates.aspx


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o We have also posted the 2016 Spring Scientist Newsletter (https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/documents/APFT-updated-2016.pdf) and the SciPAC June meeting minutes (https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/meetings.aspx)

o We ask that any Scientist officer who finds a mistake, formatting error, or broken link on the Website to please inform CDR Jacqueline Sram ([email protected]) or LCDR Jason Wilken ([email protected]). The new website is current and we encourage all the subcommittees to submit their information for posting. Be aware that postings will now take 2-3 weeks.

o In addition to reviewing and editing documents to make them section 508 compliant, the actual push into the production site is performed by a separate group in the OSG/Division for Systems Integration (DSI). Please contact CDR Sram or LCDR Wilken if you have any questions.

o We have begun holding training sessions for Website Subcommittee members for making all posted document section 508 complaint. We anticipate that this will be a long-term project that will evolve over time as we receive additional guidance from the OSG.

8) Liaison Reports

• COA: CAPT Diana Elson − The new COA operational year began July 1 with a change in leadership for the COA

Executive Board: CAPT Beth Fritsch: Chair CAPT Dean Coppola: Chair-elect CDR Heather Bair-Brake: Treasurer Past Chair: Craig Wilkins

− COA also welcomes one new board member, CDR Karen Muñoz

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − A huge congratulations from JOAG to everyone promoted this year. − As part of JOAG’s continued focus this year on building public health leadership and

advancing deployment readiness, JOAG Readiness & Deployment Workgroup, is looking into and promoting various types of deployment related training and exercises opportunities that would be open to officers of any category. If you have any you’d like promoted please reach out to the Training & Exercise Team Co-Leads, LCDR Bic Nguyen ([email protected]) and LCDR Jorge Muñiz Ortiz ([email protected]).

− JOAG’s Readiness and Deployment Workgroup is also helping to promote group AFPT events in which officers can get together to train for and do their APFT. Please contact them ([email protected]) if you’d like to organize one, and check the calendar for upcoming events; it can be found at: https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/JOAG/committees_readiness.aspx

− JOAG’s next three Journeyman Speaker Series presentations will highlight different Tier I & II deployment teams. Coming up: CAPT Victoria Vachon and CAPT Beverly Dandridge will be presenting “Introduction to

the USPHS Tier I/II Response Teams: Applied Public Health Teams (APHT) and Capitol Area Provider Teams (CAP).” 8 July 2016 from 1300-1400 Eastern Conference Dial in: 1-302-202-1106; Conference Passcode: 825385 Send any advance questions for the speakers to the JOAG JSS Co-Chairs: LCDR

Ghiya [email protected] & LT Jeisy Scott [email protected]. The next two coming up after that:


https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/meetings.aspx

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PHS Tier I & II Deployment Teams: Highlighting Roles of Each & Opportunities for Junior Officers to Get Involved Part II: MHT-2, SAT-2, and SAT-3. 9 September 2016 from 1300-1400 Eastern.

PHS Tier I & II Deployment Teams: Highlighting Roles of Each & Opportunities for Junior Officers to Get Involved Part III: RIST-NCR, RDF-3, and RDF-4. 4 November 2016 from 1300-1400 Eastern.


− Congratulations to the 15 PsyPAG members who promoted this cycle 3 to CAPT, all of whom were Scientists 6 to CDR, 3 of whom were Scientists 6 to LCDR, 3 of whom were Scientists

− For our PsyPAG members who did not promote, please consider reaching out to CDR Julie Chodacki, the PsyPAG Mentorship Lead, to get connected with a mentor: [email protected]

− If you did promote, please consider offering your services as a mentor. − PsyPAG votes for Motto are in: Mental Health is Public Health. Next big push will be for

creating the logo and coin design. − 2nd edition of PsyPAG Post (our newsletter) will be out this month. − PsyPAG has a big push to review new psychologist applicants to the Corps? − 12 senior officers are reviewing 42 new applicants in a short-turnaround time. Thanks to

those who are contributing to the selection of the best and the brightest to serve in the CC!

− Next PsyPAG Meeting will be 3 August 2016 at 1200 EST. 9) Other Business, Questions, Comments

• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou − The MOLC Charter and Bylaws Subcommittee have been meeting to review and revise the

two guiding documents. − APAOC presented the APAOC strategic planning process at the last MOLC business meeting

on 28 June 2016. The presentation was well received, and it is anticipated that CMAG representatives will be reaching out to both APAOC commanders for guidance and assistance in their respective CMAG strategic planning process.

− CAPT David Lau presented opportunities for AMSUS. Please contact CAPT David Lau ([email protected]) for more information.

− BCOAG is pleased to offer the Awards Review Program (ARP) under the leadership of the BCOAG Awards Committee and the BCOAG Career and Professional Development Committee. The purpose of the ARP is to provide valuable input to help strengthen draft award narratives for PHS awards. Officers are encouraged to submit their award narratives for review before submitting to PHS for approval. Interested officers should follow these instructions to submit their narratives. Submit a one-line citation and narrative to [email protected].


• Our next SciPAC call will be 2 August 2016.

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 2 August 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT


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SciPAC Meeting Minutes August 2016 Page 1 of 9


Tuesday, 2 August 2016

1200–1300 (EDT)








Voting Members CDR Bodart, Jennifer Career Development Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes LCDR Cole, Jessica Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Frasca, Dominic Policy Review Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Goodie, Jeffrey Science Subcommittee Chair Yes LCDR Green, Seth Category Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CAPT Novak, Ryan Science Subcommittee Co-Chair No CDR Purfield, Anne Recruitment, Retention & Readiness


CAPT Robbins, Nisha Excused CDR Rodgers, Loren Visibility Subcommittee Chair Yes CAPT Satterfield, William Awards Subcommittee Co-Chair Excused CDR Smith, Michael Career Development Subcommittee Chair Yes CDR Sram, Jacqueline Website Subcommittee Chair Excused CDR Thomas, Jennifer Mentoring Subcommittee Co-Chair Yes CDR Toblin, Robin Category Day Subcommittee Chair Yes Dr. Ulin, Brigette Civilian Representative Yes CDR Wally, Jeremy Awards Subcommittee Chair Excused

Non-voting Liaisons






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Participation by Non-voting Scientist Officers Rank Participant Agency Present CAPT Adekoya, Nelson CDC Yes CAPT Barrett, Drue CDC Yes CAPT Daugherty, Jon FDA Yes CAPT Draski, Laura OS Yes CAPT Hu, Sally NIH Yes CAPT Lawrence, Theresa HHS Yes CAPT Yip, Fuyuen CDC Yes CDR Bennett, Marco FDA Yes CDR Calanan, Renee CDC Yes CDR Carroll, Dianna D. CDC Yes CDR Chu, Dan-My T. FDA Yes CDR Cui, Minglei FDA Yes CDR Dee, Deborah CDC Yes CDR Facey, Judy EPA Yes CDR France, Anne Marie CDC Yes CDR Gelio, Alves NIH Yes CDR Goodrich-Doctor, Adrienne J. NIH Yes CDR Highsmith, Keisher HRSA Yes CDR Huang, David CDC Yes CDR Kenney, James FDA Yes CDR Maddox, Charlene NIH Yes CDR Pamboukian, Ruiqing FDA Yes CDR Phillips, Kenneth FDA Yes CDR Sancho, Alfredo FDA Yes CDR Sandhu, Sukhminder FDA Yes CDR Sauber-Schatz, Erin K. CDC Yes CDR Scheckelhoff, Mark DHS Yes CDR Zhang, Yi FDA Yes LCDR Barbour, Kamil CDC Yes LCDR Bjork, Adam CDC Yes LCDR Blessington, Tyann FDA Yes LCDR Cunningham, Timothy CDC Yes LCDR Demby, M. Lela BOP Yes LCDR Demissie, Zewditu CDC Yes LCDR Edwards, Elizabeth FDA Yes LCDR Freeland, Amy L. CDC Yes LCDR Garnett, Theodore FDA Yes LCDR Geyer, Rory FDA Yes LCDR Gieraltowski, Laura CDC Yes LCDR Hassan, Iram R. FDA Yes LCDR Hoots, Brooke CDC Yes LCDR Hudson, Gwendolyn FDA Yes LCDR Irvin-Barnwell, Elizabeth ATSDR Yes LCDR Iturriaga, Luis DHS Yes LCDR Jamoom, Eric CDC Yes

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Rank Participant Agency Present LCDR Kebker, Eric DoD Yes LCDR Ko, Jean CDC Yes LCDR Laufer Halpin, Alison CDC Yes LCDR Leshin, Jonathan EPA Yes LCDR Miller, Mark EPA Yes LCDR Muniz Ortiz, Jorge USDA Yes LCDR Odom, Erika CDC Yes LCDR Pesce, John NIH Yes LCDR Rivera, Luz FDA Yes LCDR Rossiter, Lana FDA Yes LCDR Slayton, Rachel B. CDC Yes LCDR Steele, Matthew FDA Yes LCDR Thompson-Paul, Angela CDC Yes LCDR Walters, Maroya CDC Yes LCDR Wilken, Jason CDC Yes LCDR Yard, Ellen CDC Yes LT Beard, John Doyle CDC Yes LT Benbassat, Danny SAMHSA Yes LT Bowen, Virginia CDC Yes LT Caballero, Jason FDA Yes LT Goodwin, Bradley Patrick CDC Yes LT Kembi, Folasade CDC Yes LT Lucas, Neali FDA Yes LT Mathew, Shiny FDA Yes LT Mells, Jamie CDC Yes LT Rivera Rosado, Leslie FDA Yes LT Tutt, Tanesha CDC Yes LT Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle HHS Yes LT Zhang, Xinzhi NIH Yes

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• SciPAC Executive Board positions for the 2016-17 year will be voted on by 4 August 2016. September 1st, 2016 will be the beginning of the 2016-17 SciPAC year and the new Executive Board members will begin their new roles

• This is my last month as SciPAC Chair. I would like to sincerely thank CAPT Sanders and the current Executive Board (CDR Adjemian, CDR Bobo, and CDR Breiding) for all of their assistance and support. I also want to thank all of the subcommittee members, liaisons, and active SciPAC participants for your incredible ideas and contributions this past year.

• The SciPAC Rules and Membership Subcommittee has selected new SciPAC voting members for the 2016-2019 term. There were 6 voting member vacancies to replace six officers ending their term as voting members. We would like to congratulate:

o LCDR Kamil Barbour o CAPT Mark Clayton o CDR Ingrid Pauli o LCDR John Pesce o CDR Robin Toblin o CDR Jason Wilken

Thank you again for all who applied for your willingness to serve. • Starting on Aug. 15th the electronic download upload (e DOC-U) system will begin on the CCMIS

website. Instead of the old fax line we will have the ability to submit eOPF document by electronically uploading them.

• The SciPAC Executive Board is working with CAPT Sanders to review the scientist category appointment criteria.

• Regarding promotions, if you feel the promotion board made a mistake when scoring your promotion file, you can send a memo to [email protected]. The memo should include information about the issue, what you are requesting, and evidence or supporting documentation. Please let me know if you have additional questions.

3) Report from Vice Chair: CDR Jennifer Adjemian • Congratulations to those officers who were selected as Voting Members. This included two

returning Voting Members and four first time Voting Members. I want to again thank all officers who applied for voting membership this year. There were many highly qualified applicants, which made this selection process extremely challenging. If you were not selected and would like feedback or guidance regarding your application package, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. I look forward to serving as your next Chair starting next month, and am grateful to CDR Murphy for his strong leadership and service to the PAC.







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5) COF Liaison Report: CDR Matt Breiding • Our SciPAC balance is $1340.32


a) Awards: CDR Jeremy Wally; Co-Chair: CAPT Tony Satterfield o The SciPAC Awards Subcommittee is currently revising is SOP with an end of August target

date for completion.

b) Career Development: CDR Michael Smith; Co-Chairs: CDR Jennifer Bodart, LCDR Zewditu Demissie o With feedback from the SciPAC Chair and Vice Chair, the Career Development

Subcommittee has developed guidance for officers regarding collateral duties. The document will be reviewed by the Executive Board and shared with officers once approved.

c) Category Day: CDR Robin Toblin; Co-Chair: LCDR Seth Green o Over 40 people took the survey for category day including 80% of those who attended, an

excellent response rate. o The feedback will be reviewed by the SOP/Thank you/Evaluation team, CDR Toblin, and

LCDR Green in order to make recommendations for elements to change and to sustain. o Revisions to the SOP are due to the SOP team by 12 AUG. o LCDR Green and LCDR Pesce will be the chair and co-chair, respectively, for the 2017

Category Day which will take place on 7 June 2016 in Chattanooga, TN.

d) Mentoring: LCDR Jessica Cole; Co-Chair: CDR Jennie Thomas o There were 4 new mentor/mentee matches made in July (3 CDC, 1 DHS), 2 new mentors

volunteered, and there are an additional 3 matches pending from the 4 requests made in July. If you are looking for a mentor or interested in becoming a mentor please email CDR Thomas ([email protected]) or LCDR Cole ([email protected]). As a reminder, existing mentoring agreements expire annually and should be renewed to ensure the mentors receive a letter of appreciation. You can find the renewal form on the mentoring page http://usphs-scientist.org/subcommittees/mentoring/ of the SciPAC website. Also on the website are the Mentoring Guidebook, a reference guide, and application forms.

o The promotion panel team is finalizing the final report on recently promoted O5 officers which will be shared with leadership in the next few weeks. The information will be shared with current mentors and the SciPAC community at large this fall.

e) Policy Review: CDR Dominic Frasca; Co-Chair: CDR Adrienne Goodrich-Doctor o No updates to report.

f) Recruitment, Retention & Readiness (RRR): CDR Anne Purfield; Co-Chair: CDR Anne Marie

France o Recruitment

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− The recruitment working group, led by LT Danny Benbassat, continues to be hard at work. While there was no OBC in July, the recruitment group continued to forward job announcements to boarded applicants. Out of the 2 boarded applicants that still needed to find a job as of our last report: One of these has received a signed PHS form 1662 on May 26 from FDA, and one was

not able to find a job or no longer interested Additionally, the group created a survey monkey form for potential recruits

o Retention − On 13 July 2016 CDR Kamil Barbour and CDR Anne Purfield held a SciPAC Social at Tin Lizzy

in Atlanta for incoming Scientist Officers from the Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) program. In the last few years, retention of Scientist EISOs has been a challenge. In total, 4 newly commissioned Scientist Officers attended: LTs Jaymin Patel, William Davis, Ruth Link-Gelles, and Sarah Luna. LTs Alaine Knipes and Colleen Scott were also in attendance to give their support to the new Scientist Officers and network with their colleagues. This was a very successful event. Scientist Officers shared information and tips on how to improve career prospects in the Corps. They also offered their support and mentorship to the more junior scientists, while touting the long term benefits of staying in the Corps beyond the duration of EIS.

o Readiness − The last readiness check was June 30. As of that check, 291 (93%) met basic readiness

standards, and 22 were not qualified and not exempt. The range across categories was 85% for Vets to 97% for therapists.

− g) Rules and Membership: CDR Jennifer Adjemian; Co-Chair: CDR Sara Vagi

o The SciPAC SOP review and revisions have been completed and will be submitted to the EB this week for final approval.


− August presenter will be LCDR Israel Cross from CMS. − Topic area: The use of data such as performance report cards to inform patient decision-

making about their providers. − Date and Time: Tuesday, 23 August 2016 @ 1200 EDT − An announcement of this presentation and a PDF of the article will be distributed before

the presentation. − Details: To Join the Journal Club call, go to:

https://fda.webex.com/fda/j.php?MTID=mec394b0ca5d8fa1d0e03b26b2db5e4eb − Toll-Free-Number: 1-855-828-1770 Participant Passcode: 815 438 176 − POC: Please contact LCDRs Cesar Perez ([email protected]), Nadra Tyus


o Science and Practice Team (LCDR Cunningham) − Upcoming Science and Practice Series talks include:

https://fda.webex.com/fda/j.php?MTID=mec394b0ca5d8fa1d0e03b26b2db5e4eb



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− September 20: Leadership Skills, Part 2; CDR Matthew Newland − November 15: Molecular Epidemiology; CDR Anne Marie France − Successful call by CDR Tracy Powell on 19 July 2016 at 1200-1300 EDT about the CDC’s

Grant Management Process: International Perspective. 15 participants on the call, and the call ended with a lively discussion on procedural

differences across agencies. − Call-in Number: 866-782-0573 Participant Passcode: 2214354


Health has been submitted for review. − The article is titled: “Improving Health through the National Prevention Strategy:


− The 2014 and 2015 bibliographies have been completed and will be made available for review and corrections.

− Corrections and additions to the 2014 and 2015 bibliographies can be requested by email: [email protected] “Bibliography edit requested” in the subject line and detailing the requested change in the body of the email.

− Final 2010-2013 bibliographies are available at http://usphs-scientist.org/bibliography/

i) Visibility: CDR Loren Rodgers; Co-Chairs: LCDR Kamil Barbour and LCDR John Pesce o Newsletter

− We are busily preparing to publish our upcoming issue. We have several articles, which are currently being reviewed by the newsletter team, and we expect to publish and disseminate the new issue in mid-August. If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact CDR Deborah Dee at [email protected] or the newsletter team at [email protected]

o Social Events − LCDR Kamil Barbour is organizing an Atlanta Scientist Social at Mellow Mushroom for trivia

night on Wednesday, 10 August 2016. Please RSVP to [email protected] if interested. − Visibility and RRR collaborated and held a social at Tin Lizzy in Atlanta on July 13th for

incoming Scientist Officers from the Epidemic Intelligence Services program hosted by LCDR Kamil Barbour and CDR Anne Purfield. Scientist Officers shared information and tips on career progression to the 4 incoming officers (LTs Jaymin Patel, William Davis, Ruth Link-Gelles, and Sarah Luna). They also offered their support and mentorship to the more junior scientists, while touting the long term benefits of staying in the Corps beyond the duration of EIS.

o No AMSUS update.

j) Website: CDR Jacqueline Sram; Co-Chair: LCDR Jason Wilken o We have posted the updated Mentoring Subcommittee SOP, at

https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/documents/SOP-Mentoring-201605.pdf o We have posted the minutes of the July SciPAC meeting, at

https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/documents/minutes201607.pdf o We ask that any Scientist officer who finds a mistake, formatting error, or broken link on the

Website to please inform CDR Jacqueline Sram ([email protected]) or LCDR Jason Wilken ([email protected]). The new website is current and we encourage all the subcommittees to submit their information for posting. Be aware that postings will now




https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/documents/SOP-Mentoring-201605.pdf

https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/scientist/documents/minutes201607.pdf


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take 2-3 weeks. o We have begun holding training sessions for Website Subcommittee members for making all

posted document section 508 compliant. We anticipate that this will be a long-term project that will evolve over time as we receive additional guidance from the OSG.

7) Liaison Reports

• COA: CAPT Diana Elson − The COA Legislation and Benefits Committee continues to review proposed legislation that

may impact the Corps. Current legislation includes the Senate and House provisions for the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act; COA works closely with The Military Coalition to leverage support for benefits and parity with the other uniformed services, including Tricare benefits and BAH.

− The COA Board invites PACs to submit short updates to the Retiree Newsletter published by the Coast Guard Pay and Personnel Center. Archived issues are posted at https://www.uscg.mil/ppc/retnews/. The newsletter POC is Matt O'Connell at Matthew.M.O'[email protected].

− COA will highlight the work of junior officers that are COA members throughout the categories and requests that the PACs share the contact info for two junior officers they want to include in these efforts. COA will verify they are COA members and can publish info about their work on the COA website, Facebook, and Twitter.

• JOAG: LCDR Alice Shumate − JOAG’s Journeyman Speaker Series is currently running a series of presentations on Tier I

& II deployment teams, and had one in July on Applied Public Health Teams and the Capitol Area Provider Team (CAP). Details on the next two coming up: PHS Tier I & II Deployment Teams: Highlighting Roles of Each & Opportunities for Junior

Officers to Get Involved Part II: Mental Health Team (MHT-2), and Services Access Teams (SAT-2 and SAT-3). September 9, 2016 from 1300-1400 EDT.

PHS Tier I & II Deployment Teams: Highlighting Roles of Each & Opportunities for Junior Officers to Get Involved Part III: Regional Incident Support Team (RIST-NCR), and Rapid Deployment Force (RDF-3 and RDF-4). November 4, 2016 from 1300-1400 EDT.

− Want to find a place to work out or complete your APFT? JOAG’s Officer Health and Fitness Promotion Team has developed a Federal Employee Wellness Facility Log, listing fitness facilities at duty stations nationwide and including information on APFT compatible fitness machines. We are still seeking information on additional facilities. The log can be found at https://dcp.psc.gov/osg/JOAG/resources_getstayfit.aspx Please let us know if you have information to share on a facility not yet listed, and want

to help. Contacts: LCDR Ashlee Janusziewicz ([email protected]) and LCDR Lysette Deshields ([email protected]).

− JOAG has recently received approval from the Office of the Surgeon General to create the JOAG VADM Koop Award, named in honor of the former Surgeon General and with the support of Mrs. Koop. The VADM C. Everett Koop Award will honor a junior officer who has exhibited direct contributions and/or leadership in using scientific evidence to develop, improve, advocate for, or implement health-related policy.


− PsyPAG senior officers reviewed 35 psychologist applicant packages for psychologists seeking to join the Commissioned Corps

− PsyPAC committees are in the final stretch of submitting their SOPs to the PsyPAG

https://www.uscg.mil/ppc/retnews/



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executive leadership for review − As reported last meeting, PsyPAG members voted on our motto, "Mental Health is Public

Health," and we are now moving on to designing the PsyPAG logo. If there is anyone with access to/and or experience with using graphic design software who would like to volunteer to assist in the logo design (even if you are not a psychologist or member of PsyPAG), please contact LT Lynn Abeita at [email protected].

− We will be beginning work on the PsyPAG mission statement. More to come at our next meeting.

− PsyPAg has finished our Directory updates. We have recorded 113 officers with psychology degrees 99 are counseling/clinical and have a license 57% are Scientist Officers, and 75% of those are senior officers

− Second issue of the PsyPAG Post will be released shortly − Next PsyPAG meeting will be on 3 August 2016, at 1200 EDT


• Minority Officers Liaison Council (MOLC): LCDR Eric Zhou − No updates to report.


• Our next SciPAC call will be 6 September 2016.

NOTE: Next meeting Tuesday, 6 September 2016 @ 1200–1300 EDT

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