JBLM doc wins award

Luke Mease awarded the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) Preventive Medicine Award

By Rebecca Westfall, U.S. Army Medical Command on December 18, 2020

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland - Lt. Col. Luke Mease was awarded the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) Preventive Medicine Award during the 2020 AMSUS Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, held Dec. 6-10.

The AMSUS Annual Meeting is for military healthcare professionals and leaders to improve the effectiveness, cohesiveness, and esprit de corps of the federal healthcare services. This year's meeting theme is, "Federal Health: A Global Vision Beginning in Your Community."

At the event, Mease was recognized for having served as the Chief of Preventive Medicine at Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC), Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He was nominated by Col. James Mancuso, Preventive Medicine Consultant to the Army Surgeon General, because of Mease's leadership while serving at MAMC and his deployment to Thailand, as the Senior Medical Authority in support of Pacific Pathways 20-01 from February through April 2020.

Mease regards Col. Mancuso as, "a mentor, who while he was my residency director, has also helped me throughout my career."

Prior to this present assignment, he served as the Chief of Preventive Medicine, U.S. Army Medical Activity-Bavaria, Vilseck, Germany, and Officer in Charge, U.S. Army Health Clinic, Dugway, Utah.

"I was very surprised and honored." said Mease, about being nominated for his award. He was inspired to go into preventive medicine because he feels like he can help the community, "to improve health, injury prevention, healthy living and assisting with epidemics which ultimately lead to enhancing readiness."

Mease completed undergraduate studies at BYU-Hawaii and medical school at the University of Colorado. He subsequently received a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also board certified in Preventive Medicine and Occupational Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

"I'm very excited about recently being selected as the program director for the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at MAMC, starting in July 2021. I'm pleased to continue to teach and mentor our residents and future public health physicians," said Mease about his future endeavors with Army Medicine. "I look forward to the opportunity to interact and support the leadership and medical personnel with the readiness in their units."