Lara Poole

Lara Poole

Captain Lara Poole currently serves as the Air Force District of Washington’s Command Public Health Officer and as the Malcolm Grow Medical Clinic’s Public Health Flight Commander. She leads preventative health operations to ensure Presidential and Congressional airlift and is the district’s senior advisor on public health policy affecting 594,000 beneficiaries around D.C. Captain Poole was born to a hard-working Turkish-American family and is a double Gator having earned her B.S. in Microbiology in 2013 followed by her MPH in 2014. Captain Poole then served as a full-time food bank volunteer before joining the United States Air Force in 2016. From 2016 to 2021, Captain Poole directed preventative health operations for half of the United States Air Force’s B-52 bomber fleet and one third of its pilot training mission. She advised executive leaders on implementing public health policy for 63,000 beneficiaries. Captain Poole was critical to battling the pandemic and was selected as her clinic’s Company Grade Officer of the Year. In 2020, Captain Poole volunteered to deploy to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. While enduring mortar attacks, she collaborated with senior leaders from 30 partner nations and conducted a 2,900-participant COVID-19 study. In 2022, Captain Poole was selected as the United States Air Force Biomedical Specialist of the Year – Company Grade Officer category. She is a published author in the Journal of the American Medical Association. She also owns and operates a small business providing curated antiques and resides in Virginia with her Gator husband and their two dogs.

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