WRNMMC, Bethesda, Md.   –   Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Wesley Campbell recently became the new director for Education, Training and Research (DETR) at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

A former Marine, Campbell previously served as chief of the Department of Research Programs and chief of the Division of Infectious Disease in the Department of Internal Medicine at Walter Reed.
“We really are an academic medical center,” Campbell said, adding health, readiness, education and research form the foundations of Walter Reed.

Before coming to Walter Reed, Campbell served as the deputy head of the Virology and Emerging Infections Department, U.S. Naval Medical Unit No. 6, Lima, Peru. He was initially commissioned as a U.S. Marine Corps ground logistic officer and served as with the Combat Service Support Battalion-18 during the initial offensive operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004.

Campbell earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the U.S. Naval Academy and completed his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine. He then completed his master’s degree in tropical medicine and hygiene from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He completed his internal medicine residency at the former National Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at Naval Medical Center San Diego, California.

As Walter Reed’s director of education, training and research, Campbell oversees the Military Health System’s largest research portfolio and graduate medical education programs. He has more than 15 publications and led institutional and regional response supporting COVID-19 technical efforts, including serving as the principal regional investigator for the Operation Warp Speed AstraZeneca vaccine trial. He supported the COVID-19 response with strategic allies in CENTCOM. He also supported WRNMMC’s Operation Allies Welcome and Refuge and Mpox response and served as the lead clinical consultant for infectious diseases to the White House Medical Unit from 2020 to 2023.