Erica G. Schwartz is a retired U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

rear admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

who last served as the deputy

surgeon general of the United States The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. Th ...

from January 2019 to April 2021. As a Commissioned Corps officer, she served with the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

as their Chief of Health Services and Chief of Preventive Medicine at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters and became its principal expert on flu pandemics. Prior to becoming Deputy Surgeon General, she served as the Coast Guard's Chief Medical Officer from 2015 to 2019. She retired in April 2021 after over 27 years of combined uniformed service.

Early life and education

Schwartz graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1994 and was awarded a doctorate in medicine from the same institution in 1998. She later attended the

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) is a health science university of the U.S. federal government. The primary mission of the school is to prepare graduates for service to the U.S. at home and abroad in the medical corps as ...

and was awarded a master's degree in public health in 2000 and completed an occupational and environmental medicine residency in 2001. Schwartz also has a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

and has been admitted to the

District of Columbia Bar The District of Columbia Bar (DCB) is the mandatory bar association of the District of Columbia. It administers the admissions, licensing, and discipline functions for lawyers licensed to practice in the District. It is to be distinguished from ...

Career

Schwartz served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

and

Portsmouth, Virginia Portsmouth is an independent city in southeast Virginia and across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk. As of the 2020 census, the population was 97,915. It is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Naval M ...

until 2005 when she joined the

U.S. Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...

and transferred from the Navy to the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Early in her career, as a

Navy officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contextu ...

, she served as an

occupational medicine Occupational medicine, until 1960 called industrial medicine, is the branch of medicine which is concerned with the maintenance of health in the workplace, including prevention and treatment of diseases and injuries, with secondary objectives ...

physician with postings that included chief of the occupational medicine, immunization and preventative medicine departments of the

Naval Medical Clinic. Schwartz also served at the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center in

. Schwartz served as Chief of Health Services and Chief of Preventive Medicine at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C. where she implemented disease surveillance, vaccination, screening and NBC countermeasure programs. She wrote the service's first ever pandemic influenza, anthrax and smallpox vaccination, quarantinable communicable disease, periodic health assessment and HIV policies. Schwartz also worked to develop health protection guidance for armed forces deployments following

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

Hurricane Rita Hurricane Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico and the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Part of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included three of the top ten L ...

, the

2009 flu pandemic The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1 influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, is the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Span ...

, the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

, the

Deepwater Horizon disaster The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered ...

and the

West Africa Ebola outbreak The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and S ...

. She was appointed as the Coast Guard's principal expert on flu pandemics. Schwartz has been awarded one Legion of Merit, two

Meritorious Service Medal A Meritorious Service Medal is an award presented to denote acts of meritorious service, and sometimes gallantry, that are worthy of recognition. Notable medals with similar names include: *Meritorious Civilian Service Award *Meritorious Service Med ...

s, both the Coast Guard and Navy Commendation Medals and, in 2011, was recognised as one of the

Military Health System The Military Health System (MHS) is a form of nationalized health care operated within the United States Department of Defense that provides health care to active duty, Reserve component and retired U.S. Military personnel and their dependents. ...

female physicians of the year.

U.S. Public Health Service admiralship

Schwartz was appointed to the rank of

in the commissioned corps along with her appointment as the U.S. Coast Guard's Chief Medical Officer on 17 August 2015. As chief, she concurrently served as the Coast Guard's Director of Health, Safety and Work-Life and had responsibility for managing the service's 42 clinics and 150 sick bays. She oversaw the Coast Guard's environmental health and safety program, focusing on risk management and accident prevention. She also led the service's work-life programs including: child care, culinary services, substance abuse prevention, suicide prevention, sexual assault prevention, personal financial management, ombudsman, health promotion, and employee assistance. In January 2018, Rear Admiral Schwartz testified before the U.S. House Transportation Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on the need for the service to transition to an electronic health record system, in line with the other services of the

U.S. Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

. She stated that the current paper-based record and prescription system did not allow efficient transfer of records from the Coast Guard to the

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

. Schwartz was selected for appointment as the Deputy Surgeon General of the United States on 1 January 2019. She choose to retire from the Commissioned Corps after being passed over by the

Biden administration Joe Biden's tenure as the 46th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware who previously served as vice president under Barack Obama, took office following his victory ...

to become the acting surgeon general. Schwartz was selected to serve as an Independent Director on the Aveanna Healthcare Board of Directors on 13 May 2021. Schwartz was selected to serve as an Independent Director on the Butterfly Network Board of Directors on 9 September 2021.

References

External links

Rear Admiral Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH - Deputy Surgeon General Official Bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Erica G. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Brown University alumni Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni Female United States Navy officers United States Public Health Service personnel United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps admirals Recipients of the Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal Recipients of the Legion of Merit Recipients of the Meritorious Service Medal (United States) Alpert Medical School alumni 21st-century American women