Women Who Win: CAPT Kerry Hudson

UNITED STATES

03.14.2023

Story by Petty Officer 3rd Class Samantha Alaman 

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69)   

“It’s just really nice to serve and be an advocate for other women,” said Capt. Kerry Hudson, the women’s wellness medical officer, visiting the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) from March 13-18.
Hudson, a Naval Academy graduate, commissioned in 1999. During her 24-year career, she completed her residency at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and worked at Walter Reed, Uniform Services University, SURFLANT, and Naval Medical Forces Atlantic. She has deployed once to Afghanistan and twice on USS Comfort, including a deployment during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hudson credits the length of her career to a love for serving.
She recalled her time at the academy as challenging, rewarding, competitive and very educational.
“The Naval Academy can let up to 15 people every year into medical school. My year group, they only allowed 13,” she said. “I was selected and I went to Uniform Services University because I knew I was going to owe a career, and so I wanted all of the extra military medicine training that came with that school.”
As a woman in the Navy, Hudson admitted that she “knowingly joined a boy’s club” when she began her career at the Naval Academy. She witnessed a change for the better over the past 20 years in the medical field and the service branch as a whole.
“I think some people are intimidated by male physicians,” she said. “It makes me happy to know there are now more women than there used to be. I also think the environment is more inclusive, and women have more opportunities to be successful.”
Hudson says her purpose on IKE mirrors the mission she set out to complete when she graduated in 2003 - to serve all and be an advocate for women.
“There are female Sailors here who would like female providers, and unfortunately we don’t have any that can do the cervical screening,” said Capt. Andrew Doan, IKE’s senior medical officer. “So, we contacted Fleet Forces and requested a female provider, and we were lucky enough to get her.”
During her week aboard IKE, Hudson is hosting a cervical cancer screening clinic and has made herself available to help female Sailors with women’s health issues.
“If there’s any women that have female-specific health issues that they’d like to discuss, Capt. Hudson is the attending physician, and she’s very well experienced and senior in this field,” said Doan.
Early on in her career, Hudson met Capt. Christine “Chris” Sears, a urologist who would became her mentor and a model of the Sailor she wanted to be.
“She took the time to meet with me, mentor me, and answer all my questions,” said Hudson. “She was really pivotal to my success. She was just an amazing role model of a Navy senior officer that I could try and follow in her footsteps.”
Hudson complimented Sears on her humble and mild-mannered demeanor. Hudson described Sears as a go-getter, super courteous, and very professional while also maintaining her “street cred” among her male counterparts.
“I modeled myself after her because she’s very well-balanced and everything she’s achieved and the way she’s gotten there,” she said. “There are a lot of not nice people out there, and I pride myself on knowing that I can be successful and not have to be that way.”
Hudson wants the crew to know that her goal while aboard IKE is to serve the Sailors.
“I hope to get all the women’s’ readiness where it needs to be and aide in any other ways I can be helpful, any OB/GYN consults, any follow up care, anything I can do to help out.”
Hudson’s extensive career has endowed her with a wealth of wisdom, and she gives a simple but powerful piece of advice to Sailors that was given to her and has proven true over her 24-years of service
“Be confident in yourself,” she said. “Seek out someone who you can use as a mentor or a coach, someone you can reach out to and ask questions. Above all, do not lose confidence in yourself. You will hit roadblocks, but every day new opportunities arise, so you must keep pushing forward. The future holds so much goodness, so I advise Sailors to keep with it, stick with it, try new things, and do not be afraid of the unknown.”
Hudson’s dedication and love of service has brought her to the IKE during Women’s History Month, to guide and assist female sailors with any and all female wellness concerns.

• Date Taken: 03.14.2023
• Date Posted: 03.23.2023 17:46
• Story ID: 440761
• Location: US