Commander (CDR) Thomas Janisko, U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) received his direct commission as a Lieutenant Junior Grade (O-2) in 2003 after graduating from the University of New England, College of Health Professions. His initial assignment was to the Federal Bureau of Prisons where he served as an ambulatory care physician assistant at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts. In 2006, he was reassigned to the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services where he served as an operations officer then later an expert/program manager on continental U.S. disaster patient movement. In that role, he supported the District of Columbia Army National Guard rotary wing and fixed wing units from 2008-2013. He deployed in support of numerous hurricanes, patient movements, national special security events, and to the Republic of Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake in 2010.
In 2013, CDR Janisko was selected to serve as the Command Surgeon for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he provides expert guidance on all health policy, aviation, urban search and rescue, and diving medicine policy, public health emergencies, deployment health and emergency responses. While serving as the Command Surgeon, he supported the Joint Staff Surgeon for two years to ensure that the USACE public health policy was created from a joint perspective, due to the geographically dispersed nature of USACE. Additionally, he serves as the Director for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team, which provides peer support, operational stress control, and resiliency training to all employees. His deployments include the countries of Afghanistan, Kuwait, Liberia, Germany, Greenland and across the U.S. to include the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria. He remains assigned to the U.S. Public Health Service, Rapid Deployment Force disaster team (PHS-2[S2N]), where he serves as the Chief of Behavioral Health and serves on several interagency boards on deployment health.
CDR Janisko holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a Master’s of Physician Assistant Studies from the University of New England, a Master’s of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College, and is a board-certified Physician Assistant, a certified Emergency Medical Technician, and a doctoral student at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
CDR Janisko’s military awards and decorations include the USPHS Surgeon General Exemplary Service Medal, the USPHS Outstanding Service Medal (2 awards), USPHS Commendation Medal (3 awards), and the USPHS Achievement Medal. He has earned the USPHS Field Medical Readiness Badge, the Secretary of Health and Human Services Identification Badge, and is a graduate of the Army Flight Surgeon Course, Army Basic Space Cadre Course, Army Medical Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties Course, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Physician’s Training in Diving Medicine.