Rear Admiral Erica G. Schwartz, M.D., J.D., M.P.H.

As Deputy Surgeon General, Rear Admiral (RADM) Erica G. Schwartz advises and supports the Surgeon General regarding operations of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps and in communicating the best available scientific information to advance the health of the nation.

RADM Schwartz recently served as the Director of Health, Safety and Work-Life where she was responsible for the Coast Guard's health care system of 42 clinics and 150 sick bays, as well as the Coast Guard’s environmental health and safety program. RADM Schwartz oversaw the Coast Guard's child care programs and food services delivery programs, and the Coast Guard's Sexual Assault Prevention, Response and Recovery, Family Advocacy, Suicide Prevention, Substance Abuse Prevention, Transition Assistance, Personal Financial Management, Special Needs, Health Promotion and Ombudsman programs.

RADM Schwartz is trained and Board Certified in Preventive Medicine (Occupational Medicine). RADM Schwartz graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University in 1994 and received her Doctor of Medicine degree from Brown University School of Medicine in 1998. In 2000, she completed her Master of Public Health (MPH) degree with a dual concentration in Health Services Administration and Occupational and Environmental Medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). In 2001, she completed the USUHS Occupational and Environmental Medicine residency program. RADM Schwartz also has a Juris Doctorate from the University of Maryland and is admitted to the District of Columbia Bar.

Preceding her transfer to the USPHS Commissioned Corps and Coast Guard in 2005, she served as a Navy Occupational Medicine physician. Her assignments included serving as the Chief of the Occupational Medicine Clinic and the Immunization Clinic and serving as the Preventive Medicine Department Head at the Naval Medical Clinic in Annapolis, MD. She also served as an Occupational Medicine physician and clinical epidemiologist at the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (formerly known as the Navy Environmental Health Center) in Portsmouth, VA.

RADM Schwartz served as the Chief of Health Services and the Coast Guard’s Preventive Medicine Chief in the Operational Medicine and Medical Readiness Division at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC. She instituted the following critical interagency and intra-agency programs: Navy Safe Harbor, Disease Surveillance, Deployment Health, Adenovirus Vaccination, Serology Screening, Febrile Respiratory Illness and the Chemical, Biological and Radiologic Medical Countermeasures programs. As an expert in health care policy, she wrote the first-ever force health protection policies to include: the Pandemic Influenza Force Health Protection policy, the Anthrax and Smallpox Vaccination policies, the Quarantinable Communicable Disease policy, the Periodic Health Assessment policy, and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus policy. Additionally, she developed force health protection guidance for numerous contingency operations, to include Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Operation Unified Response (2010 Haiti earthquake), the Deepwater Horizon Operation, and the most recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa. RADM Schwartz served as the Coast Guard’s principal expert on pandemic influenza – hand-picked as the medical consultant for the DHS Pandemic Influenza Principal Federal Official. She also deployed as the Medical Unit Leader for the Deepwater Horizon Unified Area Command.  Rear Admiral Schwartz served as one of the Ebola Crisis Action Team leaders, responsible for ensuring Coast Guard personnel had clear and actionable force health protection guidance for this emerging and fatal disease threat.

RADM Schwartz’s awards and decorations include one Legion of Merit, two Meritorious Service Medals, Coast Guard and Navy Commendation Medals, and many other personal and unit awards. She was recognized by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs by being honored as one of the Military Health System Female Physicians of the Year.