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2008 Convocation Speaker
Major General Melissa A. Rank is Assistant Air Force Surgeon General, Medical Force Development, and Assistant Air Force Surgeon General, Nursing Services, Office of the Surgeon General, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Bolling Air Force Base, D.C. As Assistant Air Force Surgeon General, Medical Force Development, she establishes new and appraises existing personnel policy and enhancement actions for more than 34,000 active-duty officer and enlisted medical personnel. She collaborates with Department of Defense agencies and Air Staff directorates to establish and meet future staffing needs. Her directorate is also responsible for all medical force education and training programs. As Assistant Air Force Surgeon General, Nursing Services, she creates and evaluates nursing policies and programs for 19,000 active-duty, Guard and Reserve nursing personnel. She interacts with major commands, the Air Staff, other military services and the Joint Staff on nursing services matters to ensure the highest caliber of nursing care and personnel.
More About General Rank
General Rank was born in Frostburg, Md., and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1975. While attending the University of Maryland full time, General Rank was employed as a senior registered nurse at Baltimore City Hospitals in the Medical-Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit, as a public health nurse at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, and clinical nurse researcher at the Center for Disease Control. Her Air Force career began as a staff nurse at Dover AFB, Del., and she has held a wide variety of clinical and supervisory positions at medical facilities in the United States, Germany and Japan.
The general previously served in the Office of the Surgeon General as Executive Management Fellow for Services, Chief of Plans, Policies and Programs for Nursing Services in the Directorate of Work Force Management, and Deputy Assistant Surgeon General for Health Care Operations. She also served for one year as the U.S. Air Force Surgeon Chair to Air University, Maxwell AFB, Ala. General Rank has commanded an aeromedical evacuation squadron in Southwest Asia, a medical operations squadron and two medical groups.