Tanisha Hammill

I have the honor of serving as the Chief Scientist, the senior most scientific advisor to the Air Force Surgeon General, The Office of the Air Force Surgeon General, located in the Defense Health Headquarters, Falls Church, Virginia, and am responsible for developing the Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) strategic vision for medical requirements, research and development (R&D), acquisition & sustainment. My superpowers are strategic vision, building relationships that seed effective collaboration and influence. I orchestrate coordination across US military, Federal and international organizations to evolve strategic objectives into research priorities with effective resourcing. Navigating various planning, programming and budgetary processes, my focus is always on the delivery of solutions that are critical to the AFMS, Line of the Air Force, and Joint Force programs. I directly oversee $45 million and influence a $3 billion portfolio of annual military medical research and development funding for scientific advancements that will prepare Air Force medics and warfighters to defend the nation. 

Senior leader in defense policy, planning, and capability development. An expert responsible for driving collaboration and innovation across multimillion-dollar global endeavors. Transformative, strategic, and pragmatic generator of change with 20 years’ experience in military health systems and warfighter-relevant sciences. Leader of strategic planning, technology transfer, innovation pathway development, project management, policy development, healthcare delivery system analytics, and translational research strategies. Accomplished enabler of threat-informed operational strategies to reduce cost, improve efficiency, and ensure alignment with both business and healthcare needs and objectives. Organizational ambassador for strategic communications. Manifests large-scale networks of subject matter experts across interdisciplinary domains to achieve meaningful results.

• Developed a capabilities-based, programmatic S&T management process to oversee the Defense Health Agency’s $2.4B research portfolio.
• Engineered and brokered an enterprise transformation approach to respond to congressionally mandated consolidation of Army and Joint medical research, acquisition, and sustainment.
• Spearheaded a novel Joint Capability Requirements process development and management process with a complex stakeholder network for Defense Health Agency
• Developed and managed teams of R&D employees in the private sector as well as successful small business ownership and operations.
• Identified enterprise level gaps and strategically advanced multi-dimensional partnerships and plans of action to resolve them.

With a Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies and Ethics from the Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, followed by pivot to complete a Master of Arts in Public Health with a focus in Administration from the San Diego State University in 2005. In 2017, earned a Ph.D. in Translational Science from the University of Texas with a focus and dissertation exploring pharmaceutical interventions for hearing loss. Attained professional certifications as a Clinical Research Administrator (CRA) and Project Management Professional (PMP) and is currently pursuing Defense Acquisition University certification in Program Management.