Courageous Conversation with Dr. Frances Stewart: From Patient Safety to Climate Readiness

Welcome back, dear colleague and Happy Thanksgiving! We’re grateful for your attention and presence.

In the latest Courageous Conversation, Dr. Frances Stewart brings a rare mix of clinic, command, and coaching. A former U.S. Navy medical officer with posts at Naval Medical Centers San Diego and Portsmouth, the Department of Defense Health Affairs, and the National Naval Medical Center, she later served at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at Walter Reed as an Integrative Medicine Physician, adding acupuncture, biofeedback, and mind–body skills to her toolkit.

That lens shapes this episode: how to move big systems without perfect levers, the Katrina lessons from the USNS Comfort, the inside story of standing up DoD patient safety (and scaling it after a surprise White House announcement), and what it takes to lead with relationships, readiness, and whole-person care.

The first half of the conversation is a playbook for leading when the usual levers aren’t there: align people, borrow what works, and keep moving. It’s especially relevant for climate readiness: when disasters strike, planning and communication beat static plans every time.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

What you’ll hear

• Katrina: why climate is Dr. Stewart’s mission now
  A frontline reminder that storms, heat, and policy backslides are real and so is momentum (renewables, local progress). Her story models holding peril and possibility together.

• Roots that shaped her lens
  Growing up in West Virginia, state parks and forests alongside chemical plants, plus strong science teachers and early exposure to behavioral medicine seeded an integrated way of thinking.

• Whole-person training pays off
  Starting in Internal Medicine + Psychiatry, then pivoting to a psych fellowship, built the whole-person habit she later uses in cross-system safety and climate work.

• “Least-likely naval officer”: why she joined the Navy
  A recruiter’s postcard, a mud-season trip to San Diego, and ties to UCSD opened a world she didn’t expect and a platform to do meaningful systems change.

• Service culture breaks stereotypes
  A military medical community with many backgrounds and subcultures, and colleagues with diverse motivations, offers real lessons for coalition-building and team leadership.