Indian Health Service and the Commissioned Corps:
An Exceptional Career Opportunity
An interview with CDR Lynn Van Pelt, DMD
In 1996, Lynn Van Pelt was a University of Mississippi fourth-year dental student who was exploring her career options, unsure of what direction to take. But she was certain of two things: She wanted some adventure in her health care career, and she wanted to fulfill a long-time dream of living in Alaska.
She got both – and more – when she chose a career in public health dentistry with the Indian Health Service (IHS) and the US Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps. Exceptional career advancement opportunities and the chance to perform a much-needed public health service to an underserved population brought the professional fulfillment and adventurous lifestyle she sought.
CDR Van Pelt’s career has included travel to three duty sites, increasing career responsibilities and two rank promotions within the span of 10 years. Currently she is the newest member of the IHS Division of Oral Health’s dental recruitment team, working with CAPT Tim Lozon, DDS, and CAPT Jim Schaeffer, DMD, to spread the word to students about dental career opportunities with IHS and the Commissioned Corps.
“Dental students are very interested in learning about IHS and the different career paths available, as well as externship opportunities and the IHS Loan Repayment Program (IHSLRP),” CDR Van Pelt said.
In her on-campus Lunch & Learn presentation, CDR Van Pelt emphasizes her own career experiences to highlight the professional fulfillment and opportunities for adventure and travel that she has received working with USPHS and IHS.
“The Commissioned Corps option was attractive to me because of the benefits and opportunities. The real beauty of working for USPHS is that you get to pick where you want to go. You’re not forced to go somewhere that you don’t want to be.”
CDR Van Pelt describes her first duty station in the small town of Bethel, AK, which is located about 400 miles west of Anchorage. As a newly commissioned lieutenant, she worked as a staff dentist at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation’s Dental Clinic, providing care to Alaska Native patients from the 50 surrounding villages. In addition to her duties at the clinic, she traveled to the outlying villages via bush plane to provide dental care.
The Native population in Bethel has a high caries rate, and IHS dentists perform extensive dental procedures and prevention activities. Traveling to the outlying villages, the dentists treat people who don’t speak English, but the warm appreciation from the patients is easily understood in any language.
“There are challenges to being a dentist in locations like these,” said CDR Van Pelt. “With the amount of resources we could transport, we were limited with the type of services we could provide. But the patients are so appreciative. They’re so sincere and happy that you came to their village to provide dental care to them; they think you’re the greatest. When you see their smiles and hear the thank yous, that in itself, is worth so much.”
CDR Van Pelt spent four years in Bethel with her family and recalls that when she and her husband first headed north, their parents “thought we were crazy! Because of the TV show, Northern Exposure, our parents had this awful picture of what our lives were going to be like in Alaska.” Far from the impression of their parents, living in Alaska was one new and exciting experience after another. Long summer days of nearly perpetual light were difficult to get used to at first, as was driving snowmobiles to work. With no chain restaurants and stores that are common in the Lower 48, the family kept a freezer full of local foods like salmon, moose and caribou. The Alaska Native residents in this area, she learned, spend the summer hunting, fishing and gathering berries to store for the rest of the year, the way they’ve always lived.
In such remote areas, IHS coworkers become family and the dentists often form long-lasting friendships. “There were 12 dentists at the clinic – some young like myself, others who had been practicing for 20 years or more. It was almost a residency in itself and I learned so much from my fellow dentists,” she said. “Living in Bethel was wonderful at that time in our lives and careers. I still keep in touch with a lot of our Bethel friends. Bethel was one of my favorite sites and always will be. It’s the kind of place where you have to want to be there, and want the adventure.”
CDR Van Pelt’s next assignment was in Oklahoma, where she entered long-term training for Advanced General Practice Residency in Tahlequah, OK, and also earned her first Commissioned Corps promotion to Lieutenant Commander. The two-year residency program was in-service training for general dentists to improve their skills in all aspects of dentistry.
“The residency helped me improve my clinical and diagnostic skills in endodontics, oral surgery, pediatric dentistry and prosthetics. We also learned administrative duties involved in managing a dental clinic, such as budgeting and personnel management – the things you need to run a dental clinic efficiently. It was expected that we would accept an assignment as a dental chief of a smaller clinic or the deputy chief of a larger one after we completed our residency training.”
And that’s exactly what CDR Van Pelt did, moving on to her third site as deputy chief at the Haskell Health Center in Lawrence, KS. After two years in the position, she was appointed as the acting clinic director for the Haskell Health Center and promoted a second time to her current rank of Commander.
“Not many dentists are assigned the role as the clinic director – the majority of the clinical director positions are occupied by physicians,” she said. “I was also the deputy chief of the dental program during this time.”
In March of 2007, CDR Van Pelt moved once again to her current position as Deputy Director of the Division of Oral Health at IHS headquarters in Rockville, MD. Her duties include recruitment and assisting the USPHS Chief Dental Officer, RADM Christopher Halliday.
“I really love this position,” she said. “I wouldn’t change anything about my career at this point. I’ve had the chance to travel and see a lot of this country. If I had stayed in private practice, I probably wouldn’t have seen half of what I did.”
Are you ready for the adventure? Visit the IHS Division of Oral Health Web site at www.dentist.ihs.gov. For more information on the USPHS Commissioned Corps, visit http://www.dentist.ihs.gov/commcorp.cfm.
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