Dr. William Roberts the Keynote Speaker for Fall 2022 White Coat Ceremonies

William Roberts, MD, MBA, senior vice president of Academic Operations at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) in Bethesda, Maryland, will be the keynote speaker at Salus University’s fall 2022 White Coat ceremony Aug. 19, 2022, at the Hafter Student Community Center on the Elkins Park, Pennsylvania campus.

There will be three White Coat ceremonies that day, at 9:30 a.m., 11:45 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. recognizing students from the University’s Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO), Osborne College of Audiology (OCA) and College of Health Sciences, Education and Rehabilitation (CHER).

Dr. Roberts retired from the Navy as a Rear Admiral (Upper Half) with almost 40 years of uniformed service.  He graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from George Washington University, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Edinburgh Business School.  Dr. Roberts completed his surgical internship at the Naval Regional Medical Center, San Diego, and is a graduate of the University of Chicago Emergency Medicine residency program, where he served as Chief Resident.

Before his appointment with USU, Dr. Roberts served as a member of the Senior Executive Service as the Military Health System (MHS) Functional Champion. In that role, he was the senior functional liaison among the clinical, business, information technology, and readiness communities across the MHS and Program Executive Office, Defense Health Management Systems, with a focus on configuration and deployment of DoD’s recently acquired Electronic Health Record (MHS GENESIS).

During his Navy career, Dr. Roberts held numerous key positions.  He served as the Commandant, Medical Education and Training Campus, Fort Sam Houston, Texas and as inaugural director, Education and Training, Defense Health Agency, Falls Church, Virginia.

Earlier assignments included senior medical officer tours onboard USS NEW ORLEANS (LPH-11) and USS DURHAM (LKA-114) with deployments to the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans; chair, Emergency Medicine Ambulatory Care Department, Naval Medical Center San Diego;  commanding officer, Medical Treatment Facility, USNS MERCY (T-AH 19); deputy commander, Naval Medical Center San Diego; force surgeon to Commander, Naval Surface Force, Coronado, California; and Commanding Officer, Naval Hospital, Bremerton, Washington.

In his current position at USU, he oversees the management of University academic operations and serves as the senior deputy to the USU president, representing him in his absence. 

He represents the University in matters pertaining to its students, faculty, and staff who are training or serving the Southern and Western Regions and coordinates University partnerships within those areas of responsibility, as well as within other training sites.