Campbell County Health Taps Dr. John E. Houk as Chief Medical Officer

Posted On: Apr 9, 2024

GILLETTE, Wyo. - April 9, 2024 - Dr. John E. Houk, DO, MPH, FACOEM, CPE, MFS, is excited to join Campbell County Health (CCH) as its new Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and bring his maturing family to the clean air of WY, an environment similar to the one he enjoyed as a kid. He was born and raised on a farm outside Clinton, MO, graduating in 1993 from Clinton High School, where he enjoyed sports and various academic endeavors.

Called to service, Dr. Houk began 31 years in uniform and attended the United States Military Academy (USMA), where he studied political science and systems engineering. Graduating in 1997, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry and assigned to various platoon leadership positions with the storied 82nd Airborne Division. Contingency deployments included Kuwait during Operation Desert Fox.

In 2000, Dr. Houk joined the Colorado Army National Guard and began training for Special Operations at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School. He was recommissioned upon graduation in 2001 as a Special Forces officer a few months after the attacks on 9/11. He immediately deployed with ODA 986 to Afghanistan in 2002, and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, against similarly motivated Iraqi insurgents. Significant events inside Fallujah in 2004 began a path toward medicine.

Dr. Houk returned to the US in 2005, teaching ROTC at Central Missouri State University while taking undergraduate pre-med courses. He began medical school in 2006 at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences but was again called to combat in Iraq with ODB 9520 in 2007, delaying graduation until 2011 when he was again commissioned, this time as a Medical Corps officer.

As a physician, Dr. Houk completed Madigan Army Health Center’s traditional rotating internship in Tacoma, WA (2012), a Master of Public Health at the University of West Florida and the Army’s Occupational Medicine residency (2014), and the US Navy’s Aerospace Medicine residency in Pensacola, FL (2015). Dr. Houk then began and remained operational with successive unit physician assignments.

Dr. John Houk has enjoyed learning, optimizing, and teaching systems that maximize health. He joins CCH from Tampa, FL, with his wife and three children. He loves the Lord, his family, nature, and baseball.

About Campbell County Health (CCH): An affiliate of UCHealth, CCH includes Campbell County Memorial Hospital, an acute care community hospital in Gillette Wyoming; Campbell County Medical Group with nearly 20 clinics; The Legacy Living & Rehabilitation Center long-term care center and the Powder River Surgery Center. With around 80 providers, 1,200 total staff and over 20 specialties, CCH is committed to serving our community by providing a lifetime of care with dedication, skill and compassion.