2024 Thoracic and Pulmonary Issues in Diving Pre-course

Joy Dierks, MD, MPH, MSTI
Commander
Medical Corps
United States Navy 

CDR Joy Dierks was commissioned in 2000 and selected to attend the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences School of Medicine in Bethesda Maryland. She graduated in 2004 with her Doctorate of Medicine and completed a transitional internship at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Norfolk, VA in 2005.

Following internship CDR Dierks was selected for the Diving Medical Officer program. She completed school at Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, Panama City, FL and Undersea Medicine at the Naval Undersea Medical Institute, Groton, CT. Upon graduation she received Surgeons General’s award for the outstanding graduate.

Her first assignment was as the Diving and Undersea Medical Officer, assigned to the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39) home ported in La Maddalena, Italy.  During this assignment she completed a deployment to the Gulf of Guinea and executed the base closure/change of homeport to Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, WA.  The base closure involved one of the largest salvage operations in naval history, CDR Dierks served as Medical Support Supervisor for this operation, providing medical treatment and care coordination for visiting naval and civilian divers in addition to participating in the clean up working as a salvage diver. During this tour she earned her surface warfare device.

In April 2008, CDR Dierks reported to Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Group ONE to serve as Senior Medical Officer/ Force Surgeon. Her responsibilities included medical oversight of seven subordinate EOD Mobile Units and Mobile Diving Salvage Unit ONE with several thousand sailors scattered throughout the Pacific.  During her tenure she over saw the creation of the new Expeditionary Support Unit ONE Medical department, standardized of medical training for EOD operators at Training and Evaluation Unit ONE, Hanta virus control/abatement at Darwin Wash training area on Naval Weapons Station China Lake. She jointly presented her Hanta virus work with NEPMU-5 at the Navy Marine Corps Public Health Conference.

In June 2013 CDR Dierks completed Preventive Medicine residency and earned a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD. In addition, she completed the Public Health Emergency Officer (PHEO) course and served as the resident representative on the Johns Hopkins Residency Advisory Council.

Following residency, CDR Dierks reported as the Preventive Medicine Officer to III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) in Okinawa, Japan. Additionally, she served as the acting III MEF Surgeon (May 2014- August 2014). Subsequently as Deputy III MEF surgeon and 3^rd Marine Expeditionary Battalion (3^rd MEB) Surgeon for the remainder of her tour. She was responsible for health care and force health protection for approximately 27,000 Marines and Sailors operating throughout the Pacific. CDR Dierks served as the JTF-505 forward surgeon for Operation Sahayogi Haat, the 2015 Nepal Earthquake response. She was instrumental in the identification and repatriation of the US Marines, Nepalese civilians and army personnel involved in a helicopter crash.  In addition she spearheaded several initiatives at III MEF to improve force health protection through a quality improvement project targeting increased reporting of heat casualties and quantifying contributing human factors. She facilitated new provider orientation for III MEF medical providers and collaborated with Naval Hospital Okinawa to develop monthly grand rounds for all Okinawa military medical providers. CDR Dierks led the investigation of largest leptospirosis outbreak in US military history coordinating with both military and local Japanese health officials. She was the lead author on a publication detailing this outbreak and the lessons learned. Finally, CDR Dierks earned board certification in Preventive Medicine, Occupation and Environmental Medicine, completed USMC Command and Staff (JPME-1) and earned the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) warfare device.

From August 2015 – August 2018 CDR Dierks served as the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP) Competent Medical Authority (CMA) Community Manager at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED). She was the first full-time person to hold this position and brought Navy Medicine support to the nuclear weapons community to the next level. In this role she oversaw medical support to the Navy Nuclear Deterrence Mission directly serving as the Surgeon General’s liaison to Strategic Systems Programs. She was only the second Navy medically trained person to serve as a Nuclear Weapons Technical Inspector/subject matter expert to Strategic Systems Program (SSP). Additionally she worked with the Head of Undersea Medicine (UM) to increase medical student recruitment and mentorship for Undersea Medicine Programs. In this roles, she oversaw the preparation of UM packages for the Graduate Medical Education Selection Board resulting in the highest undersea medical officer candidate recruitment in the past 10 years. She completed the requirements for her submarine medical officer warfare device. Finally, she graduated in July 2018 with a Masters in Science and Technology Intelligence from National Intelligence University with a concentration is Weapons of Mass Destruction.

In August of 2018 CDR Dierks reported to Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan. She served as Director, Branch Health Clinics and Preventive Medicine/ Occupational Medicine/ Undersea Medicine Staff Physician. CDR Dierks was responsible for six branch health clinics in two countries and one territory with over 600 personnel and a budget in excess of $ 11 million dollars and travel funds in excess of $400 thousand dollars. Additionally, she served as the Public Health Emergency Officer and Preventive Medicine consultant to Seventh Fleet. For the April-May 2019 American College of Occupational Medicine Conference, CDR Dierks gave two presentations- “Bio-security and Gene editing technologies” and “The Navy’s response to climate change.” She served as the co-champion for telehealth initiatives at the command.

In March of 2020 CDR Dierks returned to BUMED and served as acting Head, Undersea Medicine and Radiation Health from April 2020 – August 2020. During this time she led the Undersea Medicine clinical community that produced return to diving guidance for U.S. Navy diving personnel. In her current position she serves as deputy, for waivers and standards, and is the senior medical reviewer for all special duty (submarine, diving, nuclear field duty, and special warfare) waivers for all Navy and Marine Corps personnel, U.S. Coast Guard, and Department of the Navy (DoN) civilians. She assists with case reviews for the radiation effects advisory board (REAB) for DoN civilians and active duty members in the radiation health program.  Additionally, she current leads the effort to revise the Manual of the Medical Department chapter 15 sections on special duty.  She maintains her clinical currency through regular clinic hours at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital serving as Occupational and Diving Medicine Physican.

CDR Dierks’ personnel awards include the Meritorious Service Medal with two gold stars, the Joint Commendation Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal with gold star. She holds the following warfare devices: Submarine Medical Officer device, Surface Warfare Medical Officer device, and Fleet Marine Force. She holds an active TS-SCI clearance.

Keith Van Meter, MD completed his undergraduate education at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio in 1968 with a degree in chemistry and English. He graduated from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1973 with a degree in medicine. He trained at Tulane University School of Medicine/Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine with subspecialty board certification in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine.  From 1989 to the present, Dr. Van Meter has served as the Chief of the Section of Emergency Medicine in the Department of Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the Medical Director of a 140-physician Emergency Medicine group in south Louisiana and Mississippi (Keith Van Meter & Associates). He acted as the Medical Director of the Jo Ellen Smith Medical Center Multiplace Hyperbaric Medicine Unit from 1978 until the hospital closed in 1998. He has served as the Medical Director of the Baromedical Research Institute Hyperbaric Laboratory in New Orleans, Louisiana since 1980.  Dr. Van Meter served on a task force under Dr. Sam Poole and Dr. Norman McSwain to develop medical support planning for NASA for astronauts aboard a space station from 2000-2002. In his private practice, he has treated over 600 hundred commercial divers in the Gulf of Mexico who suffered from acute decompression sickness or arterial gas embolism. Dr. Van Meter’s primary research interest is the application of hyperbaric oxygen in the ACLS, PALS and ATLS in cardiopulmonary arrest utilizing a swine model.