Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland has retired as director of the Defense Health Agency, officials announced Friday.
In a statement issued Friday, Dr. Stephen Ferrara, the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said Crosland, who served in her post since January 2023, was “beginning her retirement” effective Friday morning.
Officials did not provide additional details of Crosland’s departure.
Crosland made history as the first Black woman to lead the Defense Health Agency, where she served as its fourth director.
Crossland, who entered the Army as a Medical Corps officer in 1993, most recently served as the Army’s deputy surgeon general, according to her official bio on the Defense Department’s website.
Ferrara thanked Crosland “for her dedication to the nation, to the Military Health System, and to Army Medicine for the past 32 years.”
Dr. David Smith, acting principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs will serve as acting director of DHA while DOD conducts a nomination process to replace Crosland, Ferrara said.
“I am confident the DHA will continue to improve health care in support of our beneficiaries and rise to meet complex security challenges worldwide,” Ferrara said.
Crosland’s departure comes just days before she was scheduled to speak Monday at the AMSUS – Society of Federal Health Professionals’ annual military and federal health care conference in National Harbor, Maryland, which draws thousands of military medical professionals from around the world.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has fired multiple top military leaders in the past week, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. CQ Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jim Slife and several top military lawyers.
DHA provides health care services to more than 9 million service members, military retirees and their families, including the military’s Tricare health plans.
This year, many military families have faced challenges with the transition of DHA’s Tricare contracts in the East and West regions. In a Jan. 31 message to beneficiaries in the West Region, where TriWest Healthcare Alliance now manages the contract, Crosland described steps DHA and TriWest have taken to address the issues.
“I will not rest until I am confident that we are delivering on all or our obligations so that beneficiaries can access their healthcare information quickly and easily,” Crosland wrote.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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