Rhonda Cornum.

Brigadier General (retired) Rhonda Cornum, PhD, MD has a unique perspective on Military and Veterans Health. Rhonda is a surgeon, board-certified in urology, having earned a doctorate in biochemistry and nutrition from Cornell University. Cornum worked at Letterman Army Institute of Research at the Presidio of San Francisco and entered the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

As a flight surgeon with the 229th Attack Helicopter Regiment, then-Major Cornum was aboard a Black Hawk helicopter on a search and rescue mission, looking for a downed F-16 pilot, during the Gulf War. The helicopter was shot down on February 27, 1991 where Rhonda sustained severe injuries and was captured and held as Prisoner of War by the Iraqi Forces.

Rhonda went on to command the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, then became the command surgeon for United States Army Forces Command. As a brigadier general, she served as the United States Army Assistant Surgeon General for Force Protection before working in the joint soldier comprehensive fitness program focused on physical and mental fitness.

Rhonda sits on numerous committees and advisory boards, including the Secretary’s Prisoner 0f War Advisory Committee for the VA, the External Advisory Board for the Millennium Cohort Study, and is a Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.