Naomi Aronson MACP, MD, FIDSA,

Education

1977 B.A., Natural Sciences, magna cum laude. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA
1981 M.D. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda MD
1984 Completed internal medicine residency, Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), Washington DC
1988 Completed infectious diseases fellowship with 3rd year research, WRAMC, Washington DC

Biography

Finishing college, Dr. Aronson turned down a Peace Corps assignment as an assistant professor of biochemistry in Ghana and applied to the brand new USUHS medical school where she was selected for the second class, entering the U.S. Army as a medical student in 1977. Targeting tropical medicine/global health as her future, she was the first medical student permitted to take the Navy post graduate tropical medicine course (Panama, affiliated with Gorgas Institute), and she spent one summer at the Naval Medical Research Unit 2, Cairo, Egypt in the clinical trials department. She subsequently completed internal medicine training at WRAMC, followed by a year in Seoul Korea as Chief, Internal Medicine 121 Evac Hospital and then returned to WRAMC for an infectious diseases fellowship just as HIV testing was being deployed. She volunteered for deployment on the new hospital ship USNS Mercy (during her fellowship) on a humanitarian assistance mission to the Philippines. Her research fellowship year was focused on testing a novel (but unprotective) malaria vaccine in non human primates. She requested a clinical billet on completion of fellowship and was assigned as Chief, ID Service at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, TX. In this supportive environment she was able to participate in collaborative HIV clinical trials, as well as design and conduct her own HIV projects. This led to recruitment back to WRNNMC as Chief, Infectious Diseases Clinic, core faculty in the ID training program and even greater clinical research focus including HIV, leishmaniasis investigational treatment trials that morphed into leadership of the WRAMC Leishmaniasis Treatment Center. She collaborated with Johns Hopkins University Center for American Indian and Alaskan Native Health to complete a 60 year follow up of a controlled trial of BCG vaccine (conducted by her grandparents), showing that protection against Tuberculosis lasted in more than 50% nearly lifelong. In 2000 she was selected as the first billeted, full-time Director, Infectious Diseases Division USUHS. She continued her work in leishmaniasis, leading the first North American IDSA-ASTMH clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of leishmaniasis and advanced treatment with additional clinical trials. She also volunteered to participate in the Thailand controlled Trial testing of hepatitis A vaccine, and clinical trials testing of malaria rapid tests in Peru. In 2009 she completed her Army career as Colonel, and was retained at USU as Professor with tenure, with the opportunity to expand her research to bench work in Leishmania parasites as well. She was a visiting professor for 8 months at University of Iowa, Iowa City IA in the laboratory of Mary Wilson, using her sabbatical to retool, and returned to conduct research on novel vaccine approaches for cutaneous leishmaniasis, preclinical testing of new drug treatments, further understanding of the interaction of vector (sand fly) and human host, as well as surveying military populations for visceral leishmaniasis. She has mentored many infectious diseases fellows, 5 postdoctoral students, and has coauthored more than 100 scientific articles and book chapters.

Career Highlights: Positions, Projects, Deployements, Awards and Additional Publications

Director, Infectious Diseases Division

Chief, Infectious Diseases Clinic, Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Chief, Infectious Diseases Service, William Beaumont Army Medical Center

Chief, Department of Medicine, 121 EVAC Hospital, Seoul Korea

Representative Bibliography