About Us
Director COL Craig Shriver
Colonel Craig David Shriver, MD, United States Army, has recently been appointed as Director of the United States Military Cancer Institute, replacing the recently retired Dr. John F. Potter.
Colonel Shriver concurrently serves as Director and Principal Investigator of the Clinical Breast Care Project (CBCP) and Chief of General Surgery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) in Bethesda, MD.
He was named as the inaugural Interim Director of the newly established Cancer Center at Walter Reed, which was created as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). The BRAC directed the consolidation of all the Army, Navy and Air Force healthcare assets in the National Capitol Region (NCR). This resulted in the co-location and integration of all the NCR clinical and research cancer programs to include not only USMCI and CBCP, but also other core divisions such as Medical Oncology, Surgical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Pediatric Oncology, the Prostate and GYN Translational Research Programs, and the Biospecimen Network into the foundational elements of the Cancer Center at WRNMMC.
COL Shriver was born and raised in Reading, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Reading High School in 1976 in the top 5% of his class. He earned a bachelor of science (B.S.) degree in biochemistry cum laude from Albright College in Reading, PA., in 1980. He was awarded a Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) scholarship from the US Army, and earned his M.D. degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA in 1984. At Temple Medical School, he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 1984. Entering active duty Army service at that time, Dr. Shriver went on to complete his general surgery residency training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) in Washington, DC in 1989, and was selected for advanced fellowship training in surgical oncology at the prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He has published over 200 academic papers in the medical literature including as one of the Lead Authors on the seminal article on sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer, published in October 1998 in the New England Journal of Medicine. He was also a Lead Author in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 2004 in a work describing the care of casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan returning to Walter Reed.
After completing his surgical oncology fellowship in 1993, he was assigned to WRAMC as a Staff General Surgeon. He took over as Chief of Surgical Oncology in 1995, becoming General Surgery Residency Program Director in 1998, and Chief of General Surgery in 2001. In February 2000 he was selected by the command to become Director of the congressionally-mandated CBCP, a military-civilian coalition on the forefront of providing excellent clinical care and cutting-edge breast cancer research. This research project he directs has been funded over $100 million since its inception, and has amassed one of the world’s most extensive human biorepositories of breast cancers and tissues, which are used by researchers around the world to study breast cancer and its treatment.
COL Shriver’s military education includes completion of the Advanced Officer Course, and graduating with honors (top 10% of class) from the Command and General Staff College in June 2000. His operational assignments include a two-year tour at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and direct surgical support of four overseas combat military operations (four combat tours). He has deployed in support of Operation Just Cause (the liberation of Panama in 1989), where he served as Chief Triage Officer and Surgeon for the Forward Surgical Team of the 5th MASH. He then went on to become Surgeon of the 307th Medical Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division, providing far-forward surgical support during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm (1990 – 1991), and earning the coveted Combat Medical Badge. He was decorated by his command for his direct surgical support of the medical response to the terrorist attack against the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. As Chief of General Surgery at the nation’s largest military hospital, he has led his Surgeons in the treatment of over 7,500 patients from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In 2007, COL Shriver served in Afghanistan (along the Pakistan border) with the 1-91 Cavalry, 173rd Airborne, winning the coveted “Order of the Spur” award from his cavalry unit, for gallant and intrepid service under fire on the front lines of combat in Afghanistan. COL Shriver also was decorated with the Combat Action Badge (CAB) during that tour, for service under fire in direct engagement with enemy forces. COL Shriver just completed his fourth combat tour, second in Afghanistan, returning from Afghanistan on February 20, 2011.
COL Shriver’s other military decorations and awards include the Legion of Merit (awarded November 2011), Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Services Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, and the Civilian Outstanding Service Medal from the Uniformed Services University. He was awarded the prestigious “A” Designator Award from The Surgeon General in 2001, given to only a select few military physicians who are the leaders of healthcare in the Army. He also was awarded the Order of Military Medical Merit, given to civilian or military physicians who meet the highest standard of “citizen-soldier-physician.” Dr. Shriver was promoted to the rank of Professor of Surgery in 2008 at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Shriver was also recently elected (2010) into the prestigious American Surgical Association, the oldest and most premier of all surgical societies in the world.
In summary, Craig D. Shriver has been on the frontlines of combat four times as an Army Combat Surgeon; he is the Principal Investigator responsible for a Congressionally-mandated $100 million civilian-military collaborative Translational Medicine research project; he has published extensively in medical literature to include the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine; he is recognized as a world expert on cancers of the breast and other organs; and he has been awarded all possible high recognitions as a Soldier-Physician by the US Army.
The United States Military Cancer Institute (USMCI) is a tri-serviceprogram whose goal is to initiate, develop, coordinate and enhance multi-institutional cancer research, education and care within the military system. Composed of military and civilian oncologists, the Institute is committed to bringing together the cancer resources of the Army, Navy and Air Force to more effectively respond to challenges presented by cancer among military beneficiaries.
The Institute is a component of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), a DoD graduate-education university located in Bethesda, Md. USMCI has components not only in the National Capital Area, but throughout the United States.
Over the remainder of 2012 the USMCI will be working to complete its merger with the WRNMMC Cancer Center and by Jan 1, 2013 users of this website will be re-directed to the WRNMMC Cancer Center website, currently under construction.
USMCI is a member of the Association of American Cancer Institutes, the prime organization representing cancer centers in this country.
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF) provides collaborative scientific talent and research support services to USMCI.
