By Charlsy Panzino

Army Brig. Gen. Deydre Teyhen’s health care roots helped prepare her for serving during a global pandemic and for taking over as commanding general of Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in Texas.

Before joining the Army, Teyhen studied at Ohio Wesleyan University, where she realized she wanted to be a physical therapist. During college, she visited Fort Campbell, Ky., and learned about being a physical therapist supporting the Army.

“I fell in love with it immediately,” she said, adding that the idea of helping the 1% of Americans who serve the nation while practicing medicine really appealed to her.

In 1993, she joined the Army and attended the Army-Baylor University program after basic training to become a physical therapist. She completed more education and led various posts before becoming commanding general of BAMC in July 2022.

The center at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston is DoD’s only Level I trauma center, which provides the highest level of care for ill or injured patients.

BAMC provides this care for more than 200,000 beneficiaries across the region, but the center has also been juggling two missions since 2020.

“You’ve had a trauma mission and a COVID mission, and the team has just put it all on the line the last couple years, so I really enjoyed coming in and figuring out how to invest in the leaders and staff … because they’ve given so much to the community,” Teyhen said.

She also has been deeply involved with the COVID-19 mission, as she served as DoD’s lead for therapeutics during Operation Warp Speed, which was created to help develop, manufacture, and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and testing.

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“Operation Warp Speed was this generation’s moon shot,” Teyhen said. “It was an honor to be part of it because what we brought is the best of medicine across the country and the best of leadership and logistical support from the Army and blended those together to really knock down barriers to bring solutions to America.”

She said her Army training helped prepare her for the pandemic as well as to lead BAMC.

“I think my background as a physical therapist allowed me to look at the problems from a different vantage point,” she said. “In physical therapy, we like to think about the therapeutic alliance and how will you create that trust between the patient and the provider. I think I’ve been able to apply that in many different venues, which has been helpful.”

The best part about military medicine, Teyhen said, is getting to treat people holistically for their health, adding that servicemembers put nation above self, and that often means they put their own personal health lower as a priority.

“We want to make sure that we help all those folks … and I want them to know we’re here to support them,” she said.

Charlsy Panzino is a writer based in Idaho.