Ryung Suh is the Chief of Staff of the Veterans Health Administration at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He provides senior executive leadership supporting the largest integrated health care system in the United States, which delivers care to more than 9 million enrolled Veterans at 1,298 health care facilities with an annual budget of over $100 billion.
Dr. Suh brings three decades of executive management and organizational leadership experience and expertise at the nexus of clinical care, business strategy and operations, and health care management and policy. Prior to this role, he directed the Aegis Lab and Aegis Fund, an incubator and social impact investment fund; led Atlas Research, a health care management consultancy serving federal health agencies; managed a commercial consulting company serving the life sciences industry; and founded several health care advisory firms. He serves on the faculty and as the former Chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy at Georgetown University, was a Senior Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago, and served on the faculty of the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University.
Colonel (retired) Suh served as an infantry and medical corps officer for 26 years in the U.S. Army with a diverse set of operational, special operations, and military health system responsibilities. He is a combat Veteran who served as a Task Force Surgeon during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, and served with 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), 75th Ranger Regiment, 5th Infantry Regiment, Joint Task Force Bravo, 10th Mountain Division, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 450th Civil Affairs (Airborne), and other units and has had multiple overseas deployments throughout his Army career. His military qualifications include airborne, ranger, jumpmaster, and flight surgeon. He is a service-connected disabled Veteran who has gratefully received care and support from the VA upon his military retirement.
Dr. Suh is board-certified in Occupational Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He is the President-Elect of the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) and serves on the Board of Governors of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM). He has served as President and on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP); on the Board of Regents of the American College of Preventive Medicine; on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Ensuring the Readiness of the Military Medical Workforce; and in other leadership positions within organized medicine. He served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights State Advisory Committees for Washington and for Virginia and was a Term Member on the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Suh was commissioned through the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He completed his medical, public policy, and business management studies at Georgetown University and his public health studies at the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University, with additional studies at the Yonsei University School of International Studies and Trinity College, Oxford University. He received an honorary doctorate from the Centro Universitário Dinâmica Das Cataratas in Brazil. He remains a lifetime member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, the American Association of Public Health Physicians, the Special Forces Association, and Disabled American Veterans. He proudly hails from Texas and New Jersey.