CAPT James Dickens serves in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Dallas as the Survey Operations Group Long Term Care Manager for five states. Previously he served in the Office of the U.S. Secretary for Health as the Senior Program Manager for the Office of Minority Health in HHS Region VI. He is an experienced Registered Nurse and Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner with over thirty years of federal healthcare experience. CAPT Dickens’ clinical experiences include Orthopedics, Emergency Department, Surgical Services, Long-Term Care, and the Primary Care setting. He currently serves as the AANP Region 6 Director for Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

CAPT Dickens also served as the Officer in Charge of the Commissioned Corps Ebola Response, Team 2 (76 member inter-professional team) serving at the Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU) Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia, Liberia-West Africa, leading all local MMU clinical response efforts. CAPT Dickens has received numerous Nursing leadership and Uniformed Service awards during his career.

CAPT Dickens is a Commissioned Officer in the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps, whose mission is to promote, protect and advance the health and safety of the Nation. His medical deployments include participating as a clinical team member for the Afghanistan Health Initiative (AHI) in Kabul, Afghanistan. The mission of the AHI was to improve quality of care, and maternal and infant mortality rates at Rabia Balkhi Women’s Hospital in Kabul. He served as a technical advisor as a member of a Commissioned Corps hospital assistance team in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and in St Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.