PROFILE

Kenneth J. “KJ” Green holds the rank of Commander (O-5) as a Health Services Officer in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service. Under the leadership of the U.S. Surgeon General, Commissioned Corps officers fulfill their mission to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of our Nation by filling essential public health, clinical, and leadership roles within various federal government departments and agencies.

KJ is currently the inaugural Director of Commissioned Corps Affairs for the U.S. Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture (USDA). KJ is responsible for creating and managing a U.S. Public Health Service presence in the Forest Service by overseeing the recruitment, selection, onboarding, support, and supervision of Commissioned Corps officers. He also serves a collateral assignment as Senior Behavioral Health Consultant.

Prior to his current position, KJ was the inaugural Director and Clinical Administrator of Wildland Firefighter Behavioral Health, a joint program between the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), created pursuant to Section 40803(d)(5)(B) of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. KJ provided clinical direction for the design and implementation of a program charged to serve some 20,000 wildland firefighters across both the DOI and the USDA.

Before leading the Wildland Firefighter Behavioral Health program, KJ was the inaugural Director of Behavioral Health and Wellness for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While at NOAA, KJ designed, implemented, and managed a program that grew from a single person (himself) with no programmatic budget serving a single line office of 1,100 beneficiaries, into a five-person program with a $1.2M programmatic budget serving all 12,000 beneficiaries across the entire agency.

Prior to NOAA, KJ was the Deputy Chief of the Behavioral Health Consultation Liaison Service at Alexander T. Augusta Military Medical Center, a Joint Task Force military treatment facility on Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia. KJ served a catchment area that, in addition to Fort Belvoir, included The White House, The Pentagon, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, The Washington Navy Yard, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Joint Base Andrews, and Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling. KJ personally treated hundreds of patients and led a team that treated thousands of patients across all the hospital's medical units, e.g., the Emergency Department, Family Medicine Inpatient Service, Mother-Baby Unit, Intensive Care Unit, etc.

KJ's call-to-active-duty assignment was as the Warrior Transition Unit Behavioral Health Officer on Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona. The U.S. Army established Warrior Transition Units to provide personal support to soldiers wounded in the line of duty, who require at least six months of rehabilitative care and complex medical management to either return to duty, or to medically discharge from the military. As a collateral assignment, KJ served as the Deputy Chief of the Behavioral Health Department at the Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center, also on Fort Huachuca.

KJ received his commission into the U.S. Public Health Service as a graduate of Officer Basic Course 48. Before commissioning, he operated a private therapy practice in Indiana.

KJ earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University, a Master of Social Work degree from Indiana University, and a Doctor of Behavioral Health degree from Arizona State University, where he was inducted into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. KJ holds a license to practice clinical social work in the State of Indiana and is a Board Certified Diplomate with the American Board of Clinical Social Work. KJ maintains professional memberships in the National Association of Social Workers, the American Public Health Association, the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, and the Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service.