Robert Buckley MD

He is responsible for strategic leadership and operations. He leads an integrated VA/Department of Defense team of approximately 3,500 employees, serving veterans, active duty military and military dependents. Lovell FHCC is responsible for the medical readiness of more than 40,000 Navy recruits annually.

Dr. Robert Buckley recently served as the Chief of Staff of the Jesse Brown Veterans Health Care System. He entered the VA in 2016 after a career in the US Navy, where he held the rank of Navy Captain, serving his last assignment as Deputy Director and Commanding Officer of Lovell FHCC.

Dr. Buckley attended Northwestern University Medical School, with Distinction/Alpha Omega Alpha in 1987 and later completing a residency in Emergency Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He went on to serve as Residency Program Director and Chairman of Emergency Medicine at Naval Medical Center San Diego, improving quality, satisfaction, overall scholarly activity, and was twice awarded top teaching awards. He had multiple deployments afloat and ashore in the Middle East to include serving as Officer-in-Charge of a US Marine Corps Shock Trauma Platoon during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Director of Clinical Services of US Navy Expeditionary Medical Facility Kuwait and as Force/Fleet Surgeon (CMO) in Bahrain for all US Naval Forces throughout the Middle East and in Afghanistan. He has extensive leadership experience to include serving as Chief of Staff (CMO/COO) the $1.3 billion, tri-service Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in the National Capital Area, which successfully opened and gained full accreditation in 2011 under his leadership.

He has multiple peer-reviewed publications, presentations, DoD and VHA awards and commendations, and was thrice awarded the Legion of Merit.