Rear Admiral Kerry Paige Nesseler
Chief Nurse Officer, U.S. Public Health Service
In addition to serving as the Chief Professional Officer fo the Nurse Category since November 2009, RADM Nesseler was appointed director of the Office of Global Health Affairs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in May 2006.
HRSA works to fill in the health care gaps for people who live outside the economic and medical mainstream. The agency uses its multi-billion dollar annual budget to expand access to quality health care for all Americans through an array of grants to state and local governments, health care providers, and health professions training programs.
As director of the Office of Global Health Affairs, RADM Nesseler develops strategies to maximize HRSA's participation in efforts to improve health care for vulnerable populations worldwide; she also coordinates and advances international health policy and resource development within HRSA. Additionally, RADM Nesseler serves as a consultant to the HHS Office of the Secretary's Global Health Affairs, other HHS agencies, the World Health Organization, and other international groups on a variety of health and nursing issues, including health professions training and pacific basin health care needs.
As Chief Nurse Officer for USPHS, RADM Nesseler provides leadership and coordinates nursing professional affairs for the Office of the Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She provides guidance and advice to the Surgeon General, the Nurse Professional Advisory Committee (N-PAC), and the Nation’s nursing community on matters such as prevention, primary care, health systems development, recruitment, retention, readiness, and career development of USPHS nurses.
RADM Nesseler served as associate administrator for HRSA's Bureau of Health Professions from July 2002 until her current appointment. She was deputy associate administrator for programs for HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau from 2000 to 2002, and was a senior nurse consultant at MCHB from 1993-2000. From 1992-1993, RADM Nesseler was a nurse epidemiologist with the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and first worked with HRSA from 1990-1992 as a senior project officer/nurse consultant in the Bureau of Primary Health Care with the Atlanta Regional Office. She began her PHS career with the Indian Health Service in 1986 at the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation, in Cloquet, MN, as a Maternal Child Health Nurse Specialist. For her service, she was awarded the first Lucille Woodville Memorial Award.
RADM Nesseler received a bachelor of science degree in nursing from the University of San Francisco and a master of science in nursing from the University of Hawaii.
