As Chief Veterinarian, RADM Kis Robertson Hale advises the Office of the Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services on issues central to the strength of the Veterinary Category and the assignment and deployment of Commissioned Corps veterinary officers. She also provides leadership and career counseling to the approximately 70 nationally dispersed Commissioned Corps veterinarians who are committed to using their highly versatile training in animal health, comparative medicine, and infectious disease to advance the Nation’s public health. 

RADM Hale serves as the Director for the Office of Laboratory Operations and Applied Science (OLOAS) within the Human Foods Program of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this role, she has executive oversight for the FDA laboratories that analyze the food supply for contaminants of public health concern, produce scientific findings to drive the mitigation of food safety risks, and enable the timely control and prevention of foodborne hazards that make consumers sick. Prior to coming to FDA, she worked at the Food Safety and Inspection Service as the Chief Public Health Veterinarian and the Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Public Health Science. In previous assignments, she worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and at the Maryland Department of Health as a CDC Preventive Medicine Fellow.

RADM Hale has been involved in USPHS activities throughout her career, serving as a voting member of the Veterinary Professional Advisory Committee (Vet PAC) in 2013-2016, Chair of the Vet PAC Recruitment Subcommittee in 2013-2014, and Vet PAC Chair in 2015. Her most recent USPHS deployment included service on a strike team that provided life-sustaining medical care to COVID-19 patients at an alternative care facility. In 2021, in support of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, she led the mobilization of federal veterinarians to serve as vaccinators at mass clinics nationwide. This campaign was the first federal response that used veterinary personnel to administer vaccines to people. Currently, as a flag officer in the USPHS Commissioned Corps, she serves as an Assistant Surgeon General.

RADM Hale’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Tuskegee University, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Minnesota. She is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.