Director for Professional Education
U.S. Navy Capt. (Dr.) Karen West serves as the Designated Institutional Official and Director for Professional Education at Naval Hospital Jacksonville in Florida overseeing the training of approximately 40 U. S. Navy medical officers in the hospital’s Family Medicine Residency Program.
Capt. West graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry in 2000. In 2005, she received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Duluth, Minnesota. Capt. West completed her internship in family medicine at the Naval Hospital Pensacola Family Medicine Residency Program, Pensacola, Florida in 2006 and residency training in family medicine at Naval Hospital Pensacola in 2011. She completed training as a Naval flight surgeon at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute in Pensacola, Florida in 2007. She went on to complete the Naval Command and Staff Program as well as the Joint Professional Military Education Phase I through the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island in 2021.
Capt. West has served as residency teaching faculty at Naval Hospitals Pensacola and Jacksonville as well as staff family physician at their associated branch health clinics. During that service, she deployed to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti as the station flight surgeon in 2013. Capt. West served as the wing surgeon for 2d Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, North Carolina from 2020-2022. Prior to that service, she was the senior medical officer for commander, Naval Surface Squadron 14 at Naval Station Mayport in Mayport, Florida from 2017-2020. Capt. West also served as the squadron flight surgeon for Marine Tactical Electronic Attack Squadron FOUR (VMAQ-4) at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point from 2007-2009, during which time she deployed to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, as a squadron flight surgeon with VMAQ-4 in 2008 and then to Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan as the group surgeon for Marine Aircraft Group 40 in 2009.
Capt. West’s awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Strike/Flight Air Medal (1), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (4), and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. She is also a designated Naval Flight Surgeon and Fleet Marine Force Qualified Officer.
Capt. West is a Diplomat of the American Board of Family Medicine and holds an academic appointment as an assistant professor with the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a member of the American Medical Association and American Academy of Family Physicians as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.