Col. Barbara Bujak assumed the role of Military Deputy to the Assistant Director for Support, Defense Health Agency in September 2025. She was born in Poland, immigrating to the United States at the age of 12. She is a graduate of Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York (B.S. 2005), the U.S. Army – Baylor University Graduate Physical Therapy Program, Ft Sam Houston, Texas (Doctor of Physical Therapy, 2008) and the Arnold School of Public Health at University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina (PhD in Health Promotion, Education and Behavior, 2019).
Bujak served as Director of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research—Europe-Middle East in Tbilisi, Georgia from June 2024 to August 2025 and Deputy Director of WRAIR-EME from January 2023 to June 2024. Prior to her assignment to WRAIR-EME, she served as Military Deputy Director for Military Operational Medicine Research Program, Executive Officer in the Office of the Chief of Staff, the Director of Joint Trauma Analysis and Prevention of Injury in Combat Program, and Military Deputy Director for Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program, all at U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland. During that time, she also served as a DOD Representative on the NIH-DOD-VA Pain Management Collaboratory Executive Committee, the NIH-National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Council, and various Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program Programmatic Panels.
Bujak’s previous assignments include: Brigade Physical Therapist for 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina; Detachment Commander and Chief of Physical Therapy at the Andrew Rader U.S. Army Health Clinic, Ft. Myer, Virginia; Chief of Physical Therapy in the 10th Combat Support Hospital while deployed to Baghdad, Iraq; and Staff Physical Therapist at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, where she also volunteered as an interpreter for NATO Coalition service members from Poland, who were treated at the hospital.
Bujak is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. She is a board-certified clinical specialist in orthopedic physical therapy, the author of several peer-reviewed publications and poster presentations. She holds a Defense Acquisition Workforce Engineering and Technical Management Practitioner level certification. She is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and its Federal Section. She previously served as the U.S. Army Representative for the APTA’s Federal Section.
Select awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Army Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Army Achievement Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Department of State Meritorious Honor Award, Ministry of Defense of Georgia ‘Noble Partner’ Medal, and others. She was awarded the Surgeon General’s “A” Proficiency Designator and is a member of the Order of Military Medical Merit (O2M3).