Army Maj. Benjamin Custer is an Infectious Diseases attending at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), and currently serves as the Clinical Chair of the Infection Prevention and Control Committee (IPC) and co-chair of the Sepsis Committee at WRNMMC. In his IPC role, he has enjoyed the dynamic challenges related to mpox, avian influenza, C. difficile, Candida auris and other multidrug-resistant organisms, and most recently, measles. His research activities are primarily in the field of HIV, and he has the privilege of teaching medical staff and trainees on a variety of infectious diseases topics, while constantly learning from his colleagues.

MAJ Custer grew up enjoying the mountains in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he completed his bachelor’s in biochemistry at Colorado College in 2006. During his undergraduate time, he spent over a year in Taiwan, and after graduating, he spent more than five years in China. During that time, he taught himself Mandarin (with the patience and help of many native speakers) while working as a high school probability, statistics, and calculus teacher, and later as the conference coordinator for an international health conference. While working on the conference, he met his future wife as she was finishing her Ph.D. in ecology.

In keeping with his original life plan, MAJ Custer finally applied to medical school in 2012 and matriculated as a Second Lieutenant in the Army at USUHS in 2013. Always interested in infectious diseases, he completed an Internal Medicine residency at WRNMMC and continued with an Infectious Diseases fellowship, culminating with a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at USUHS, from which he graduated in June 2023. When not doing infectious diseases work, he loves being with his family (including his 4-year-old son), climbing, and photography.