Cynthia J Gantt PhD, FNP-BC, FAANP
Dr. Cynthia Gantt served in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps for 29 years. After completing her master’s degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner at Sonoma State University, CA in 1991, she was a Primary Care Provider at three U.S. Marine Corps bases. She held an adjunct faculty appointment from the Uniformed Services University (USU) of the Health Sciences, School of Medicine while assigned to the Family Medicine Residency Program at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, CA.
After completing her PhD in Nursing at the University of San Diego, Dr. Gantt focused on integrating population health principles and practices at Navy hospitals and clinics around the world. She expanded these efforts across the entire Military Health System while working for the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs). During this Washington DC assignment, she led a team that developed policies and programs, and published articles related to health promotion, disease as well as case management for wounded ill and injured service members and their families. During this tour she held an adjunct faculty appointment from the USU Graduate School of Nursing. Next, Dr. Gantt expanded her leadership experiences as the Senior Nurse Executive at the high-acuity U.S. Naval Hospital Guam, and then as the Executive Officer, Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms, CA. She was privileged to become the Commanding Officer (CO) at Naval Hospital Lemoore, CA. In 2015 she was selected as the Chief of Staff for the Commander, Navy Medicine East where she provided oversight to 20 medical treatment facilities and worldwide public health activities. In 2018, Dr. Gantt was honored to be selected as the CO in Kandahar, Afghanistan at the NATO Role 3 combat trauma hospital.
Dr. Gantt currently serves as a member of the Senior Executive Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as the Deputy Director, Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation where she is a leader in moving the nation's largest integrated health care system to a Whole Health system of care. Whole Health is an approach that empowers and equips a person to take charge of their health and well-being and live their life to the fullest with a central focus on changing the conversation from "What's the matter with you? to "What matters to you?". An explicit focus on the social and structural determinants of health is integral to the Whole Health approach. Robust evaluations of the Whole Health System's three components: Pathway, Well-being Programs (including complementary and integrative health approaches), and Whole Health Clinical Care demonstrate decreases in opioid use, invasive spine procedures and stress levels in Veterans with chronic pain. Additionally, improvements in life purpose, engagement in personal health and adherence to evidence-based mental health care have been observed. Importantly, VA's transformation includes Employee Whole Health tools and resources that decrease burnout and increase retention among other outcomes.
In addition to being a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) since 2012, in 2011 Dr. Gantt was the recipient of the first AANP State Award for Excellence in the Pacific U.S. Territory. In 2010, she received the American Hospital Association Federal Health Care Executive Award for Excellence, and in 2018 she received the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (now known as AMSUS) Lifetime Achievement Award.