Drake Tilley, Jr. MD MPH&TM FIDSA CTropMed

Education

Naval Medical Center San Diego, Fellowship in Infectious Diseases, San Diego, CA, Aug 2007 – Aug 2009

National Naval Medical Center, Residency in Internal Medicine, Bethesda, MD, June 2005 – June 2007

Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, Naval Flight Surgeon, Pensacola, FL, Nov 2002 – April 2003

National Naval Medical Center, Internship in Internal Medicine, Bethesda, MD, June 2001 – June 2002

Tulane School of Medicine, M.D., New Orleans, LA, Aug 1997 – May 2001

Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, MPH &TM, New Orleans, LA, Aug 1997 – May 2001

Coastal Carolina University, B.S. in Biology & Chemistry, Myrtle Beach, SC, Aug 1992 – May 1996

Biography

Growing up in Tennessee and the Carolinas, CAPT Tilley attended Coastal Carolina University receiving Bachelors’ degrees in both Chemistry and Biology in 1996. He was accepted into the Health Professional Scholarship Program and attended Tulane University School of Medicine and School of Public Health to complete both his Doctorate in Medicine and his Master’s in Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2001. He then completed his Internal Medicine internship at National Naval Medical Center (NNMC), Bethesda and was accepted for flight surgeon training in Pensacola, FL in 2002. His first assignment was with Marine fighter squadron VMFA 312 in Beaufort, South Carolina and deployed with Carrier Air Wing ONE of the Enterprise Strike Group in the support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003. During this tour he earned the designation of Fleet Marine Force and Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer in addition to his designation as Naval Flight Surgeon. After his tour, he returned to NNMC, Bethesda to complete his residency in Internal Medicine in 2007 followed by a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) in 2009.
Shortly after graduating from fellowship, he was deployed to Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, Africa supporting the Expeditionary Medical Facility prior to transferring to U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit SIX in Lima, Peru in 2010. In Peru, he led Department of Defense tropical medicine research efforts in Latin America as the Department Head of Bacteriology before retuning back to NMCSD in 2014. While at NMCSD, he was chosen to join Task Force 51 Ebola Medical Support Team in support of the Department of Human Services national Ebola response and deployed on the USNS MERCY as part of Pacific Partnership 2015. While at NMCSD, he served on multiple committees to include being Chairman of the Infection Prevention and Control Committee from 2016-2020 where he orchestrated the COVID-19 response for NMCSD. From 2020 to 2022, he was the Officer in Charge of Fleet Surgical Team SEVEN and served as the Expeditionary Strike Group SEVEN/Task Force -76 Surgeon in Okinawa, Japan with deployments on the USS AMERICA (LHA-6) and USS NEW ORLEANS (LPD-18). He then transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy to serve as the Chief Medical Officer for Naval Medical Readiness Training Command Annapolis from 2022 to 2025 and served as the U.S. Navy Infectious Diseases Specialty Leader from 2023 to 2026. Currently he serves as the Director of Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Program (IDCRP) at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD.

Dr. Tilley is currently board certified in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and holds a Certificate of Knowledge in Clinical Tropical Medicine and Traveler’ Health from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In addition, he is an assistant professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Naval Awards include 2 Navy Achievement Medals, 4 Navy Commendation medals, and 3 Meritorious Service Medal.