Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs

Dr. Steve Ferrara is currently serving as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. In this role, he is the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness for all Department of Defense health and force health protection policies, programs, and activities. Prior to his present role he served as the Deputy Director for Clinical Operations for the National Capital Region, DOD’s largest healthcare network, comprised of seven major medical facilities which provide care for more than 500,000 beneficiaries. He also served as an interventional radiologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and a Clinical Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Ferrara is an experienced clinician, combat veteran, educator, and healthcare leader. During his 25-year Navy career he completed combat, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and diplomatic deployments with the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. He was the Navy's Chief Medical Officer helping lead a world-class healthcare system of 63,000 medical professionals.

Following his military career, Ferrara served as Chief Medical Officer of the Central Intelligence Agency where he held the rank of Senior Intelligence Service Officer. He also served in the 113th Congress as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/National Academy of Medicine Congressional Fellow on the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee where he helped draft major healthcare legislation.

Ferrara received his bachelor’s degree with honors in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1991, following which he earned his doctorate in medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1995. He completed a surgical internship and diagnostic radiology residency at the Naval Medical Center San Diego before going on to fellowship training in vascular and interventional radiology at the University of California, San Diego, and Boston Children’s Hospital (Harvard Medical School).

Ferrara is an avid author and speaker and has given more than 100 national and international lectures and presentations on Interventional Radiology, Health Policy, and Economics.