Paul R. Cordts, MD, MSS, FACS Deputy Assistant Director (DAD), Medical Affairs (Acting)

Dr. Cordts was appointed as Acting Deputy Assistant Director, Medical Affairs (DAD-MA) in May 2018. In this role, his responsibilities include development of Military Health System (MHS) clinical quality patient safety, and risk management policies, procedures, and direction. He is also responsible for MHS enterprise activities including process improvement, graduate medical education, patient experience, and civilian physician recruiting.

Prior to this role, Dr. Cordts served as the Deputy Assistant Director, Strategy, Plans, and Functional Integration (J-5). In this role, he led strategic planning for an MHS integrated delivery system for readiness and health. Focus areas included: strategy, innovation and future plans, design and implementation planning, developing requirements, and establishing a framework for enterprise learning supported by analytics, decision support, incentives design, data management, and functional integration of the MHS electronic health record (EHR).

For 15 months, Dr. Cordts served as the MHS Functional Champion, DoD’s representative for the clinical, business, and operational communities on matters relating to implementation of new health IT in the MHS. He was a single “voice of the customer” in implementation of MHS GENESIS, the Department’s $4.3B EHR.

Dr. Cordts retired from the U.S. Army Medical Corps in 2014 after 30 years of service, where he served as a physician and leader at every level of Army Medicine. He served as Hospital Commander at Ft. Stewart, GA and Ft. Campbell, KY. Dr. Cordts was deployed as a vascular surgeon to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Dr. Cordts is Board-certified in General and Vascular Surgery. He is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and holds a medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). He received a master’s degree in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College. Dr. Cordts is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a Distinguished Fellow for the Society for Vascular Surgery, and Associate Professor of Surgery at USUHS. Dr. Cordts has authored or co-authored more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as 2 book chapters.

Dr. Cordts was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in July 2015. He is married to Dr. Patricia Cordts, a retired Army Nurse Corps officer and nurse anesthetist who holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Laurie Rafferty, J.D.
Lead Ethics Attorney
Defense Health Agency (DHA)

Falls Church, VA

Laurie Powell Rafferty is the lead ethics attorney for the Defense Health Agency (DHA). She has held this position since 2008. Prior to DHA, Laurie was an ethics attorney for the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

She has given numerous presentations on the Criminal Conflict of Interest Statutes and the Standards of Conduct regulation, and reviewed tens of thousands of financial disclosure reports.

Laurie also practiced in the Employment and Labor Law area for the Defense Contract Audit Agency, the Resolution Trust Corporation, and the Commerce Department.

Prior to her Government service, Laurie worked for a small, private law firm in Washington, DC. Laurie graduated from the College of William and Mary in Virginia with an AB in English, and the George Mason University School of Law with a JD.

She is a member of the Virginia, Maryland and District of Columbia bars.