Meet the ARP Leads

• CAPT Harry Taylor
• CDR David Bellware
• LCDR Michelle Colledge

CAPT Harry B. Taylor

CAPT Harry B. Taylor is a physician assistant with the Indian Health Service stationed at the Lawton Indian Hospital, Lawton, OK.

CAPT Taylor began his medical career as a surgical technician while in the US Army from 1969-1971. While serving in the Army, he was stationed at the 249th General Hospital Asaka, Japan and the US Army Hospital Bangkok, Thailand. After completing his military obligation, he attended the University of Oklahoma Physician Associate Program and graduated with a BS in 1977. Upon graduation he was employed as a Family Medicine Physician Assistant in the private sector until 1989 when he joined the US Air Force. He was stationed at the Robert L. Thompson Strategic Hospital, Carswell AFB, Fort Worth, TX from 1989-1993. In 1993 he completed an interservice transfer to the US Public Health Service. In 1997 CAPT Taylor completed his Master of Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Nebraska, College of Medicine.

CAPT Taylor was a member of the OK-1 Disaster Medical Assistant Team from 1993-1999 and was deployed to the US Virgin Islands in response to Hurricane Marilyn and the Olympic Games, Atlanta GA in 1996. He was deployed with the Commissioned Corps Readiness Force to St. Croix. He was deployed to another hurricane response to the island of St. Croix with the Commissioned Corps Readiness Force. He was appointed by the Assistant Surgeon General, Director, Indian Health Service as Chief Clinical Consultant for IHS PAs from 2002-2006. He has received the following awards and recognitions including the following: 2 Achievements Medals, 2 Unit Commendation, Field Medical Readiness Badge, National Emergency Preparedness Service Ribbon, 2 Crises Response Service Awards, Lawton Service Unit Merit Award, and the Oklahoma City Area Outstanding Mid-Level Provider Award.

CAPT Taylor currently serves in the following capacitates: Administrative/Finance Chief RDF 4, Discipline Liaison for Health Services Professional Advisory Committee, Associate Recruiter and more recently appointed Associate Recruiter Program HSO Category Co-Lead, active member of the Southwest Oklahoma Branch Commissioned Officers Association (1993-Present, President 1994-96), Member of the Oklahoma City Area Awards Committee, and Liaison officer for the Lawton Service Unit.

CDR David Bellware

CDR Bellware is a Health Service Appointment Placement Program Administrator, Health Service Lead recruiter, Health Services Discipline Liaison and the Chief of Optometry at White Earth Health Center (WEHC) in the Indian Health Service (IHS). In addition to managing the operations of the White Earth Health Optometry Department, he also holds several appointments; and he is active on several other local and regional committees. A few of these additional duties and appointments include: member of WEHC Head Start Health Advisory Committee, WEHC Contract Health Committee, WEHC Infection Control Committee, Bemidji Area Awards Committee, past and present adjunct professorships with several Colleges of Optometry in North America, and Liaison Officer to St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes while on deployment for Hurricane Katrina. He has also served as Vice President of the Bemidji Chapter Commissioned Officers Association and currently is the Chapter President.

CDR Bellware received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Bowling Green State University in 1990. In 1992 he completed Pre-Optometry course work at the Ohio State University, and in 1996 he graduated with an Optometry Doctorate Degree from Southern College of Optometry. He was then commissioned as a Lieutenant in September 1996 by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS).

Prior to CDR Bellware’s commissioning with the USPHS, he completed more than 12 years of uniformed service with the Ohio and Arkansas Army National Guards. During these years he served as a Combat Field Medical Specialist, an Attack Helicopter Pilot, Maintenance Test Pilot and Safety Officer.

LCDR Michelle Colledge

LCDR Michelle Colledge is an environmental health scientist in the Chicago field office of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Trained in epidemiology and air quality, LCDR Colledge works as a site investigator and project manager in environmental health. At ATSDR, LCDR Colledge works with citizens, enforcement agencies, and state and local health partners to eliminate or significantly reduce residential exposures to toxic substances. She does this by leading multi-agency teams in site investigations that characterize exposures and implement public health interventions (even change laws!).

LCDR Colledge received her BA in biological anthropology from the University of South Florida, her MPH degree in Epidemiology from Florida A&M University Institute of Public Health, and is currently working on her PhD degree in Air Quality and Air Toxics from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health (estimated graduation: Fall 2007). She is proud to have deployed several times to assist in Hurricane Responses and has also participated in TOPOFF disaster readiness simulations.

LCDR Colledge has been an Associate Recruiter since 2002, and an HSO Category Lead since 2005. She was a voting member of the Health Services Officer Professional Advisory Committee (HSPAC) from 2003-2005, where she served as the Recruitment and Retention (R&R) Subcommittee Chair two years of her three year term. She developed, implemented, and administers the Health Services Officer Applicant Placement Program for the Category, and has since 2004. She has had the pleasure of performing with the PHS Ensemble in 2005 and 2006. She is an active member of the Chicago Branch Commissioned Officers Association (COA), a past President, President-elect, and Executive Secretary for the Chicago COA (2002-2004), and the former Chair, Chair-elect, and Executive Secretary (2002-2006) (and an enthusiastic believer in) JOAG.

LCDR Colledge plays the saxophone, banjo, and guitar and enjoys creating art (any form). She is the proud mama of a beautiful baby girl, born in September 2006.