AAGP Congratulates AAGP Member, Dr. Maria D. Llorente, VHA Deputy Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Patient Care Services, for the 2023 John D. Chase Award for Executive Excellence in Health Care
Veterans Affairs awarded Dr. Maria Llorente the distinguished John D. Chase Award for Executive Excellence in Health Care. Llorente was sited as exemplifying excellence in executive leadership. The citation read as follows: “Dr. Llorente was instrumental in the recognition of more than 20 toxic exposure-related conditions that empowered VA to presumptively provide care and benefits in the recent PACT Act legislation. Her efforts facilitated VA’s response to the concerns and needs of Veterans, Veteran Service Organizations, and external stakeholders, including Congress. Dr. Llorente created a new Veteran-centric program for registry exams and to address military environmental exposures concerns, called The Veterans Exposure Team – Health Outcomes Military Exposures (VET-HOME). Due to her work in military exposure, VA created 2 new initiatives to address special exposure concerns. Dr. Llorente also supports VA’s mission of education by supervising and mentoring psychiatry residents from George Washington University School of Medicine in the delivery of group therapy for Veterans with PTSD. She has made a national impact in geriatric psychiatry through her service as Chair of the Council on Geriatric Psychiatry at the American Psychiatric Association. Despite the demands of being a national healthcare leader, Dr. Llorente continued to support VA’s first mission by treating Veterans with complex psychiatric diagnoses and medical co-morbidities during the pandemic, at a time when physicians have been in great need.”
