Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Lieberknecht | 090117-N-ZZ999-001 PENSACOLA, Fla. (Sept. 1, 2017) Cmdr. Malissa Wickersham, a Rapids...... read more read more
A Rapids City, S.D., native, now serving as Department Head of the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute’s Flight Medic Course on board Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, was promoted to the rank of Commander in a ceremony on Sept. 1, 2017.
Cmdr. Malissa Wickersham, who graduated from South Dakota State University in 2001 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing, credits her family for initially sparking her interest in serving in the Navy.
“I was inspired to join the Navy by my father,” Wickersham said. “He served on an aircraft carrier during Vietnam. I also joined because I grew up in a small town and wanted to see the world.”
She certainly got what she asked for. Upon her graduation, she was assigned to Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, California, and then to Naval Hospital Guam, where she was named Nurse of the Year in 2005.
Following a deployment to Kuwait, she was selected for the Duty Under Instruction Program and received her Masters of Science in Nursing at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center Houston. While there she earned her Family Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist degrees and a certificate in education.
Wickersham had follow-on assignments to Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where she deployed to Afghanistan, and Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point, North Carolina, prior to reporting to her current post in Pensacola.
Her future goals include earning her doctoral degree in nursing and working her way into Executive Medicine.
Wickersham has been awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, in addition to numerous other personal awards and unit citations.
| Date Taken: | 12.06.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.06.2017 14:14 |
| Story ID: | 257678 |
| Location: | PENSACOLA, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 97 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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