Meet
Kishla Askins

I’m a proud Midwesterner, daughter of a Vietnam Veteran and union man who worked nights in the auto and glass industry, and a mother who served as a probation officer while raising five children, including one with a significant cognitive disability. My parents instilled in me the values of perseverance, family, and community, values that inspired me to enlist in the Navy to serve my country.

I spent three decades in uniform, serving around the world. I completed college at night, earned my commission as a Naval Officer, and served with the U.S. Marines as a Physician Assistant. I led missions in Iraq and in support of Afghanistan; directed international training exercises in Africa, Oman, and Kuwait; coordinated relief efforts in Haiti; led medical operations for John F. Kennedy Jr.’s burial at sea; and supported the response to the terrorist attack on the USS Cole.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, I was the Executive Officer (XO) for a forward-deployed medical detachment near the Iraqi–Syrian border as part of a classified joint operation. We established a mobile Shock Trauma Platoon and Forward Resuscitative Surgical Suite (FRSS) in support of Marine Corps operations, enabling lifesaving care within minutes of injury. As the Executive Officer and Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant, I oversaw emergency resuscitative care, managed medical logistics and blood supply, and provided trauma care and resuscitation to bridge patients to surgical care.

When casualties came in from northern Iraq or across the border in Syria, our team of Navy corpsmen, surgeons, nurses, and Marines worked to stabilize patients, stop the bleeding, and give them a fighting chance to make it home. Between medical missions, I conducted combat patrols outside the wire for intelligence-gathering and security operations. Whether resuscitating a critically injured Marine, managing scarce supplies, or riding in a convoy through the desert, every decision was about saving lives and standing beside those who served.

That experience, witnessing courage under fire, sacrifice in its purest form, and the resilience of those who put everything on the line, shaped how I lead and how I serve.

After Iraq, I identified a critical shortage in emergency medicine providers and led the creation of the Navy’s first graduate medical education program for Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants (EMPAs), designing policy, building the training pipeline, and developing a new staffing model to meet the need. I also served as faculty for the Emergency Medicine residency, ensuring the next generation of providers was mission-ready and community-grounded.

The Navy next sent me to Washington, D.C., where I served as Senior Defense Advisor to Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly. That experience taught me the power of achieving a common purpose through caring and collaboration. Among the many national security issues I worked on, one of my proudest accomplishments was helping craft mental health legislation included in the National Defense Authorization Act that President Obama signed into law.

I later served as congressional liaison to the Surgeon General of the Navy, senior military advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, and, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs under the Biden–Harris Administration, helping our nation better care for veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors.

I’m a proud graduate of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and will soon defend my doctorate in public health, earning my third degree from the University of Nebraska system. I married my wife, Alison, a Nebraska native and retired Marine Corps Colonel and helicopter pilot, in 2015. We live in Omaha, Nebraska, with our dog, Bentley.