Donald A. Gagliano

Don is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, the Chicago Medical School, Penn State University and the United States Army War College. Initially commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, he served as a Platoon Leader, Executive Officer and Company Commander. Following medical school, he completed a residency in Ophthalmology and a fellowship in Retinal Diseases and Surgery. He is the author of multiple publications and book chapters, a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and a longstanding member of the Retina Society and the American Society of Retinal Specialists.

Don has served at the CEO level of leadership as the Commander of a directed energy research laboratory, Commander of three hospitals, and Commander of the combat medical brigade during the initial occupation of Iraq. As the first Iraq Theater Surgeon, he was the architect and implementer of all components of medical operations and support in Iraq during the first year of the war, which included coordinating reconstruction with the Ministries of Health, Defense and Higher Education, as well as managing an integrated health care system for over 350,000 coalition forces from 33 nations and thousands of enemy prisoners of war and terrorist detainees in Iraq. He was individually recognized as having been “directly responsible for saving countless lives, both Coalition and Host Nation.”

Don subsequently served as the Chairman of the Medical Education and Training Campus Executive Committee and was responsible for overseeing the execution of $1B in the development of a new state-of-the-art military medical training facility and the implementation of the largest Joint training integration in the history of the Department of Defense. In November 2008, Don was appointed by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs as the first Executive Director of the Joint Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Vision Center of Excellence (VCE) and was responsible for overseeing the clinical care, research, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of military eye injuries in the DoD and VA healthcare systems. Under his leadership, the VCE successfully established the first ever Joint DoD and VA integrated database and clinical registry.

From 2009-2013 Don was appointed to the National Advisory Eye Council for the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institute of Health. The council advises the NEI about conducting and supporting research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs that address blinding eye diseases and disorders, visual function mechanisms, sight preservation, and health needs of visually impaired individuals. Don is an active advocate for Visually Impaired Veterans and currently serves on the Board of the Blinded Veterans Association and the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington.