BS, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT, 1981
MHA, Baylor Univ., Waco, TX, 1991
M.Phil, Rand Grad. School Policy Studies, Santa Monica, CA, 1994
Ph.D., Rand Grad. School, Santa Monica, CA, 1995
Regent Army, ACHE, 2000-2003
Senior Health Policy Analyst, SRA International, Inc., San Antonio, TX, 2003 to present
Chief, Dept. Health Srvc. Admin., Academy Health Sciences, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, 2002-03
Dep. Commander Admin., Bayne-Jones ACH, Ft. Polk, LA, 2000-2002
Exec. Off., Dental Corps Office Chief, Academy Health Sciences, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, 1999-2000
Exec. Off., DENCOM, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, 1998-99
Dep. Dir., Center Healthcare Educ. & Studies, Academy Health Sci., Ft. Sam Houston, TX, 1997-98
Asst. Chief Staff, AMEDD Center & School, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, 1997
Dep. Dir., U.S. Army-Baylor Univ., Academy Health Sciences, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, 1997
Faculty, U.S. Army-Baylor Univ., Academy Health Sciences, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, 1995-97
Fellow, Rand Graduate School, Santa Monica, CA, 1992-95
Administrator, Dept. Med., Fitzsimons AMC, Aurora, CO, 1990-92
Resident, Fitzsimons AMC, Aurora, CO, 1989-90
I was born in Jacksonville, Florida, the fifth of ten children born to Clayton and Juanita Perry. I attended school in Jacksonville and later in Provo, Utah, and earned the rank of Eagle Scout and graduated with honors from Provo High School in 1975. I served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for two years in Japan, and then returned to Provo to continue my education.
A 1981 Distinguished Military Graduate of Brigham Young University, I received a Bachelor's Degree in Finance, and was commissioned in the United States Army Medical Service Corps. My first assignment was to B Company, 75th Combat Support Battalion, 194th Armored Brigade, at Fort Knox, Kentucky. As Ambulance Platoon Leader and Motor Officer, I had the opportunity to be mentored by then CPT George V. Masi, who was later named Outstanding Educator of the Year for the Baylor Program in 1984. He also served as an ACHE Regent, 70A Consultant to the Surgeon General, and as one of the first Army MSC officers selected to command a hospital from 1999 to 2001. After George left to teach at Baylor, I assumed responsibilities as the Clearing Platoon Leader at Fort Knox, and then as the 75th Support Battalion S-1.
In 1984 I was reassigned to the Republic of Korea, and served as the 2nd Medical Battalion S-1, and then as the Executive Officer and Troop Commander of the 665th Medical Detachment (Dental Services), relocating the unit from Seoul to Taegu in the Summer of 1984. Following the Advanced Course in 1985, I was reassigned to Fort Ord and the 56th Medical Battalion, serving simultaneously as S-1 and HHD Commander, and later as the Battalion S-3. During this period, the 56th Medical Battalion consisted of the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, an Aero-medical Evacuation Detachment, a Clearing Company, a Preventive Medicine Detachment, a Finance Support Unit, a Replacement Detachment, a Garrison Support Unit, and a Chemical Company. In spite of the support missions of these units, the battalion had more firepower than an Infantry Battalion. While in the 56th I had the opportunity to work for two exceptional Baylor MHA Graduates, Sterling D. Hammond and Henry (Hank) O. Tuell. Both were very supportive of my application to attend Baylor, and in 1988 I was admitted to the program.
While attending Baylor my family lived in Harris Heights, the military housing area adjacent to the Academy of Health Sciences. Two of my classmates lived on the same street, Michael Hooten and Darrell Hanf. Mike and I always chuckled about Darrell sitting in his front yard in his lawn chair, reading his textbooks every time we walked or drove past.
During the didactic year I experienced several significant emotional events. The week before finals of the second semester, my wife Christine gave birth to our third child, Eden Marie at the old BAMC. Unfortunately, Eden had a cord accident, and was stillborn. I stayed in San Antonio to take my finals while Chris went home to Montana for the funeral. I flew up with our two older children after finals. During the Christmas holiday break, I finished CGSC by correspondence, and then went back to San Antonio in early January. Although the unexpected death of our baby cast a pall over some of the normal festivities of our class, in early July, just as we were preparing to move, we were blessed with a brand new baby girl, Rebecca Dawn, whom we were able to adopt. My classmates recognized her as the newest Baylor Baby Bear at the Opening/Closing Ceremonies when she was only three days old.
My learning style is primarily auditory in nature. I would sit and listen in class, and as long as everything made sense, I wouldn’t take many notes, and relied upon common sense when it came time for the exams. At the end of the year, my notes consisted of about 35 pages of cryptic doodles and sentence fragments. My classmates still joke about my note-taking abilities. Since we were issued our textbooks and then returned them at the end of each semester, I showed up for my residency with what I had in my head on the last day of class! As I walked home following my oral examination, I noticed Darrell sitting in his lawn chair, reading. I asked what he was reading, and he told me it was his Organizational Behavior textbook, in preparation for his orals later that afternoon. I laughed, and mentioned that I hadn’t read it the first time! Darrell, of course, was the Distinguished Honor Graduate!
I was reassigned as the Admin Resident at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center. My Preceptor was the same COL Sterling D. Hammond who had served as my battalion commander a few years earlier at Fort Ord. I enjoyed my residency, and learned a great deal about academic teaching centers. After my residency, I served as the Administrator in the Department of Medicine at Fitzsimmons.
While at Fitzsimmons, I met COL Paul DeBree. Paul had been a RAND Fellow, and insisted that this was something I should aspire to. When the Medical Service Corps announced that they would select an officer to attend the RAND Graduate School and earn a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis, COL DeBree ordered me to apply. Thinking that the opportunity would certainly be given to a more seasoned, politically connected officer, I ignored his order until after the application deadline was past. One day he called me to his office, and asked about my application. When I told him that I had not submitted one…, well, it was not a comfortable moment for me. He told me to call Mr. Fields at PERSCOM and tell him that a “little bird” had told me that my application would be allowed, even if it was late. I obeyed the order. Mr. Fields said they had plenty of good applications, and that he would not accept any more. Then he asked about my GPA and GRE scores. I answered, and then he told me to fax in my packet, and he would take care of the rest. (I did this without consulting my wife – big mistake! You can imagine the things she had to say to me over the next several years as I moved her and the kids from Denver to Los Angeles, and we lived through the aftermath of the LA riots, O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, and the Northridge earthquake.) I was placed on the order of merit list, and offered a day of interviews at RAND in Santa Monica. I was admitted and began my doctoral studies in September 1992. I shall always be indebted to COL DeBree for his insistence that I apply for this opportunity.
RAND was the most challenging environment I have ever experienced. Two weeks into my first semester Statistics class, we had surpassed everything I had learned in my undergraduate and graduate statistics classes, and it just kept getting deeper and deeper, in every subject. In my youth, I used to have nightmares about waking up in the middle of a class with the chalkboards full of calculus equations, and the professor holding an eraser. Sometimes nightmares do come true!
My classmates at RAND were absolutely awe-inspiring. One day in a microeconomics class, Doctor Steve Garber was demonstrating the calculus associated with determining the equilibrium price and quantity in a market when changes in the quality of the product are taken into consideration. The math took two full chalkboards. When he got to the end, one of my classmates, a blind man named Brent Walker (not to be confused with LTC Brett Walker who now teaches at Baylor), said, “Doctor Garber, you dropped a sign in your calculations on the second step of the analysis, and you have obtained the wrong answer. The correct answer is…____________.” Brent was blind. He couldn’t even see the chalkboard. After a short pause, Dr. Garber found his error, corrected the calculation, and determined that Brent, as usual, was correct. While on that day, we all acknowledged that we were not worthy to sit in Brent’s presence, and breathe the rarefied carbon dioxide that he exhaled, each of my classmates was equally impressive in one way or another. After managing to pass my qualifying exams by the narrowest margin in the history of the RAND Graduate School, I completed my dissertation in July 1995. While 2 years and 10 months is not a record for the shortest completion time for earning both a masters and a doctorate at RAND, I was the first in my class of 14 to be called “Doctor” by the Dean.
Since 1995 I have taught classes for Baylor University, Central Michigan University, Northwestern State University, Trinity University, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and the United States Army Academy of Health Sciences. In addition to teaching, it has been my distinct pleasure to serve as the Deputy Director of the U.S. Army – Baylor University Graduate Program in Health Care Administration, Assistant Chief of Staff of the Army Medical Department Center & School, Executive Officer of the Army Dental Command, Executive Officer of the Army Dental Corps, and Deputy Commander for Administration of Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital (Fort Polk, LA), and as the Chief, Department of Health Services Administration, at the U.S. Army Academy of Health Sciences. I am board certified in Healthcare Management, and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). I served as a member of the ACHE Council of Regents, representing the Army Eastern Region. Following my military retirement, I was hired by SRA International as a Senior Health Policy Analyst.
My awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal with six Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Achievement Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, and the Expert Field Medical Badge. I was named as the Outstanding Educator of the Year for the Baylor Program in 1997, and Preceptor of the Year in 2002. I was inducted into the Order of Military Medical Merit, and received the Surgeon General’s “A” designator as a health care executive.
I have the honor of being married to the former Christine Larson of Helena, Montana since 1982. Chris is a former Army Nurse Corps Officer. We have four beautiful, brilliant, and talented children: Heather, Joshua, Rebecca, and Karina. We reside in Windcrest, Texas.
All that I have accomplished as a healthcare executive started with my experiences in the Baylor Program. I have made fast friends, both on the faculty and with my fellow students, who have remained close to my heart over the years, even as some of us have left the military or retired, and gone on to work in various consulting, teaching, and health executive roles. My teachers have had a tremendous impact on me. Being such a poor note-taker, I am not always sure who said what, but I am certain that I didn’t come up with what I have learned on my own! Rich Varney (Outstanding Educator of the Year in 1990) used to quip that he was just a blue-collar instructor, not having one of those high-falutin’ Ph.D.s. Come to think of it, quite a few of the outstanding educators at Baylor could be described as having blue collars, whether they have Ph.D.s or not. It was their ability to reach out and touch people, and make the educational experience one of value that created a life-long learning environment for us all.