Rear Admiral William Bailey
Assistant Surgeon General and Chief Dental Officer, U.S. Public Health Service

As Chief Dental Officer, RADM Bailey leads the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service dental professional affairs and advises the Office of the Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services on the recruitment, assignment, deployment, retention, and career development of Corps dentists. RADM Bailey also serves as the CDC spokesperson and programmatic lead on water fluoridation at the Division of Oral Health within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. His CDC responsibilities include leading community-based public health activities aimed at preventing oral disease and building the infrastructure and capacity of state oral health programs.

Education/Training
RADM Bailey holds a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from San Diego State University, a doctorate of dental surgery from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and a masters degree in public health in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina. He completed a dental public health residency with the Indian Health Service, and since 2004 has been a diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health.

Professional History
Commissioned in 1982, RADM Bailey’s first assignment was with Denver Health and Hospitals, delivering clinical dental care mainly to underserved Hispanics and Vietnamese refugees. He transferred as the Chief of Dental Services for the Federal Correctional Institution at Ray Brook, NY. He next served in Guam as the coordinator of a major dental sealant program serving more than 18,000 children annually. In 1991, he transferred to the Aberdeen Area Office of the Indian Health Service (IHS) in Aberdeen, SD. As the Aberdeen Area IHS Area Regional Dental Consultant, RADM Bailey served as the primary consultant on oral health to 21 dental programs in a four-state region. In this capacity, he established an Area Preventive Support Center that focused on preventing early childhood caries and expanding water fluoridation in American Indian communities. RADM Bailey also served as the director for the Office of Medical Care Evaluation, coordinating, monitoring, and evaluating efforts to improve the quality of medical care for more than 20 health care facilities, including 8 hospitals. In this capacity he served as the primary area consultant on risk management, credentialing, accreditation, and quality improvement, and the liaison to the Area Governing Body.

In 2005, RADM Bailey served as chief of logistics as part of the Secretary’s Emergency Response Team after Hurricane Katrina. He also was chosen to serve on the Pre-Deployment Site Survey team with the U.S. Navy that helped choose sites, where he arranged in-country contacts and planned clinical and preventive procedures for the highly successful USNS Comfort humanitarian mission in 2007.

Awards
RADM Bailey has received numerous awards from the U.S. Public Health Service. In 2009, he was the recipient of the USPHS Dental Category Jack D. Robertson Award, the highest award bestowed upon a dental officer by the USPHS Dental Professional Advisory Committee.