Darrell Singer MD, MPH

Education

B.S. University of Georgia (1991)
M.D. Uniformed Services University (1995)
M.P.H. Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene (2001)
Certificate (Humanitarian Assistance) JHSPH (2001)

Biography

CAPT(Retired) Darrell Singer is the Program Director (Master of Public Health Degree) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine.

Dr. Singer enlisted in the Army in 1985 and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC until 1989. Transferring to the National Guard, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia in May 1991. He received his commission in the U.S. Army as a 2LT and matriculated to the Uniformed Services University in July 1991, receiving his medical degree in 1995.

Following the completion of a transitional internship at Tripler Army Medical Center in 1996, (then) CPT Singer was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, NC. As the Battalion Surgeon, he deployed on training and contingency deployments within the U.S. and 14 overseas missions, primarily to the African continent, where he directed or supported humanitarian civic assistance projects, medical training, military and peacekeeping skill training and de-mining activities as individual JCETs or elements of larger exercises. Most impactful on Dr. Singer was the high mortality rate that the HIV epidemic was having on partner militaries and their communities.

In 2000, Dr. Singer was assigned to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), completing a Master’s in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 2001 and General Preventive Medicine Residency in 2002. Subsequently assigned to the Division of Retrovirology at the WRAIR, he was immediately deployed in support of the Division's HIV research mission to Uganda and Kenya. In early 2003 (then) MAJ Singer was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division for the invasion of Iraq.

In 2004, Dr. Singer was detailed to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria as the DOD representative of the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Simultaneously he was co-directing the implementation of PEPFAR and exploratory HIV research with the Nigerian military. In 2006 his Army commission was transferred to the U.S. Public Health Service under the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), where he continued the NIAID-WRAIR/ PEPFAR-research collaboration in Nigeria by a direct assignment to the Embassy as Health Attaché (Defense) and Director, DOD HIV Program (Nigeria). His accomplishments include the implementation of annual PEPFAR budgets that grew from $75M in 2004 to $486M in 2011, annual HIV research budgets of $1.5M, and growth of the Nigerian military’s budget contributions to 30% of the U.S.; though, most proudly and prominently was the hundreds of thousands of Nigerians tested for HIV and placed on lifesaving anti-retroviral treatment.

CAPT Singer returned CONUS in 2011 and served in the Office of Secretary for Defense (Global Strategic Affairs)/(Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction) until 2012, when he detailed to the Division of Preventive Medicine, Uniformed Services University as an Associate Professor in a variety of teaching, service and research activities including the Department’s Vice Chair for Medical Education, PHS Company Commander, and Chair, Sub-Committee #2, School of Medicine Admissions Committee. In 2019, CAPT Singer was appointed as the interim director of the Master of Public Health Program. In April, 2020, CAPT Singer retired from active duty with 34 years of service and was hired as a civilian faculty member and full time director of the MPH degree program.

Dr. Singer is board-certified in General Preventive Medicine and has authored/co-authored 23 manuscripts and book chapters. His awards include the Defense Superior Service Award, US Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal, US Army Meritorious Service Medal (1OLC), Air Medal, and the PEPFAR Joe Haydon Award (2011)..