October 6, 2006

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Timothy Albertson, executive director for clinical care at UC Davis Health System, has been promoted to brigadier general in the California Army National Guard.

President George W. Bush nominated Albertson for the promotion and the U.S. Senate confirmed it. The promotion follows Albertson's appointment last year as the assistant for mobilization and reserve affairs in the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense Health Affairs. In that part-time position, Albertson is responsible for addressing health-related issues that apply to all U.S. military reserve personnel. He is serving a three-year appointment in the position, which began in May 2005.

The mission of the U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System is to ensure the nation has available at all times a healthy fighting force supported by a combat-ready health-care system. Its mission also is to provide a cost-effective, quality health benefit to active duty members, retirees, survivors and their families. The Military Health System provides medical care for 9.2 million beneficiaries through a $39-billion health-care system consisting of a worldwide network of 70 military hospitals, over 500 military health clinics and the department's extensive private-sector health-care partners.

Albertson, who also is professor and chief of the UC Davis Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, is a national leader in critical care medicine and toxicology, with more than 20 years of experience in caring for critically ill patients, conducting clinical and basic research, teaching students and serving and advising the public. He has been a member of the California National Guard for 18 years and served as its state surgeon and medical detachment commander for three years. He was responsible for the medical evaluation during the mobilization of nearly 10,000 California guardsmen in support of operations Mobile Eagle, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

While in Iraq in 2004, Albertson served for three months as a battalion surgeon for the California National Guard Armor Unit providing security in that country. Albertson also is a flight surgeon and chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine for the Veterans Administration Northern California Health Care System.