Leadership

Leaders of the Military Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic are clinician-researchers with military experience and administration experts. They are committed to developing and fostering military medicine research and collaborations that result in operational and health care solutions.

Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Pierre Noel, M.D., is a physician in Mayo Clinic's Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology. He is a primary consultant in protective medicine for the White House Medical Unit and a senior visiting fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He has held leadership roles at the National Institutes of Health, including acting director of security and emergency response, and at the Department of Health and Human Services, focusing on disaster recovery and pandemic response planning.

After 9/11, Dr. Noel worked with military special mission units and the Homeland Security Council. He developed the Special Operations Tactical Medicine Training Program at Mayo Clinic for military special mission units. This program specializes in combat trauma, prolonged field care and critical care. Since then, the program has trained more than 600 physicians, physician assistants, medics and troops. The program is recognized in the special operations community as one of the best tactical emergency and critical care programs.

U.S. Navy Capt. Thomas R. Flipse, M.D., is an electrophysiologist in Mayo Clinic's Department of Cardiovascular Medicine in Jacksonville, Florida, and continues to serve in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

During his time in the Navy, Dr. Flipse has served as a flight surgeon for a combat helicopter squadron during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He holds three Navy medical certifications — aviation medicine, cardiovascular disease and internal medicine. He has also served as an aviation medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration and is a federal air surgeon cardiology consultant.

Dr. Flipse sees key strategic importance in this role given the close proximity of Mayo Clinic's Florida campus to the large Jacksonville military community. It provides a tremendous opportunity to partner with local and regional military in the Southeastern United States.

U.S. Army Maj. Christopher S. Russi, D.O., serves in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps, Army Medical Department (AMEDD), with a forward resuscitative surgical detachment. He also is a consultant in Mayo Clinic's Emergency Department. As an active-duty U.S. Army emergency medicine physician, Dr. Russi provides care to wounded service members in far-forward and austere environments.

In addition to leading Mayo Clinic Military Medicine's work in the Midwest, Dr. Russi serves as the director of Mayo Clinic's Emergency Medicine Telehealth Strategies team, where he leads development and growth of emergency medicine telehealth and digital care strategies.

Dr. Russi is evaluating new airway management tools in rotor wing and ground transport systems. He also aims to incorporate tissue oxygen monitoring technology to identify and guide therapy to patients who are critically ill and need transport while in states of distributive or hypovolemic shock.

  • Melissa A. Barr, M.A.

    Administrator

As the administrator for Mayo Clinic Military Medicine, Melissa A. Barr, M.A., collaborates with the medical directors and is responsible for oversight of Military Medicine activities across Mayo Clinic. She coordinates all military-related practice, education and research programs. Mrs. Barr served in different leadership roles within the Mayo Clinic practice for more than 20 years before transitioning to Military Medicine in late 2022.

Mrs. Barr is an instructor in health care administration in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and holds Excellence in Teaching certification at the fellow level through the Academy of Educational Excellence. Mrs. Barr obtained her master's degree in Organizational Leadership and Management in 2013 and is currently completing her Doctor of Business Administration.