25+ years of experience conducting and supporting heat stress physiology, heat illness treatment, and heat illness prevention research for the U.S. Military. (Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, retiring from active duty in December 2026.)
Inaugural Director of The Army Heat Center, with the mission to develop, identify, and disseminate best practices for the prevention, treatment and return to work/play for exertional heat illness. Under my leadership, the frequency of exertional heat stroke at Fort Benning, GA has been reduced by over 60% (data pending publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal.) On the rare occasion in which there is an exertional heat stroke death in the US Army, was frequently called upon by the US Army Combat Readiness Center (aka the Army Safety Center) to assist with the official investigation.
Extensive policy experience, as one of the authors of TB MED 507 Heat Stress Control and Heat Casualty Management and as the primary author of the local Fort Benning regulation on heat and cold weather-related illness. Co-editor of the Defense Health Agency “Clinical Practice Guideline for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Management of Exertional Heat Illness”.
Conducted site assessments for numerous commands across the Department of Defense. Among these are US Army Cadet Command (Fort Knox, KY), US Marine Corps Officer Candidate Course (Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA), US Army Training Center, Fort Jackson, SC, US Air Force Officer Candidate School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, AL, and the US Army Reserve 78th Training Division, Camp Shelby, MS.
Inventor of the Arm Immersion Cooling Method and Apparatus, US Patent 10,058,448. Arm immersion cooling has been incorporated into Army policy (TB MED 507 Heat Stress Control and Heat Casualty Management) and Defense Health Agency clinical guidelines.
Sole Department of Defense representative to the National Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health working group for heat illness prevention. The recommendations of the group were used to inform the recently updated OSHA regulations on heat safety in the workplace.
Ph.D. in Physiology, Penn State University, 2007. Dissertation topic “Thermoregulation and individual characteristics during heat and cold stress”