James Dunford, PhD, MS, BA

U.S. Navy Director’s Training Fellowship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA-2011-2013
Ph.D. in Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL-2007
M.S. in Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI-2000
B.A. in Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI-1996

LCDR James Dunford hails from Wisconsin and had an interest in science at an early age. His academic background includes a Bachelor’s Degree (1996) in Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Master’s Degree (2000) in Entomology at the University Wisconsin-Madison, and Ph.D. (2007) in Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. While attending UF, he taught courses on insect identification and general entomology, and was recipient of departmental, college-wide, and national teaching awards. During his Ph.D., he was selected as recipient of the Navy’s Health Care Collegiate Scholarship and was commissioned as an officer in the Medical Service Corps in 2008. He was assigned to the Navy Entomology Center of Excellence, Jacksonville, FL from 2008-2011 where he served as Assistant Department Head in the Testing and Evaluation Department. His duties included discovery of novel methods and best practices to protect deployed warfighters from exposures to disease-transmitting insects. During this tour he deployed with the Army in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, traveling throughout Afghanistan as 62nd Medical Brigade’s Theater Entomologist and member of the Cooperative Medical Assistance team; he was awarded a Defense Meritorious Service Medal for leading nearly 50 joint missions. Following this tour he was recipient of a DUINS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Fellowship where he served from 2011-2013 working alongside world class scientists in the CDC’s Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, Atlanta, GA. His work included research in support of the President’s Malaria Initiative, and his accomplishments included development of the Division’s first instructional video on insecticide resistance monitoring, a new student internship program, and publications as lead investigator on interagency projects that focused on the prevention of vector-borne disease. His efforts earned him the Center for Global Health’s 2012 Excellence in Partnering Award. LCDR Dunford was then assigned to the Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit 2, Norfolk, VA from 2013-2015 where he served as Entomology Division Officer and Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit Disease Vector component lead. His team was deployed in support of joint exercise Bold Alligator 2014 and he also deployed in support of humanitarian/civic assistance mission Operation Continuing Promise 2015 aboard the USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20). He led subject matter expert exchanges in 11 countries throughout SOUTHCOM during the six-month mission earning his 4th Navy Commendation Medal. LCDR Dunford was then assigned to the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, Portsmouth, VA where he was Head of the Program and Policy Support Department. His team was staffed by environmental health officers, civilian environmental health specialists, preventive medicine officers, and epidemiologists that provided expertise on an array of topics that impact preventive medicine and environmental health programs across the Navy and Marine Corps. He was also Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit Disease Vector Component Manager, training and equipping environmental specialists to forward deploy in support of combat/humanitarian missions. In 2016-17 he was awarded four grants from the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance, Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch to conduct mosquito surveillance and pathogen testing in SOUTHCOM to improve disease risk analyses and Force Health Protection guidance. He is currently assigned to the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and holds an Assistant Professor appointment in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics.