Rutgers School of Nursing Dean Angela Starkweather with Adm. Jennifer Moon and Cdr. Jennifer Chhibber, an alumna of the nursing school.

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When Rear Admiral Jennifer Moon sat among hundreds of inductees at the American Academy of Nursing conference last month, she noticed the remarkable number of Academy fellows who were Rutgers faculty.

“It really stood out how well Rutgers was represented,” said Moon, chief nurse officer for the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS). “I made a mental note: I gotta go visit.”

Last week, Moon made good on that promise to herself, spending Wednesday morning at the Rutgers University–Newark campus meeting with administrators and students from both the School of Nursing and the  School of Social Work.

The visit served a dual purpose: recognizing Rutgers’ standing in health professions education while recruiting students for a federal service that most Americans – including nearly all the students Moon addressed – have never heard of.

The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is one of the nation’s eight uniformed services, tracing its roots to 1798 when it operated marine hospitals at ports to treat sailors returning with infectious diseases. Today, its roughly 5,000 nurses, social workers, physicians, dentists, pharmacists, therapists, and other health professionals serve in multiple federal agencies, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Indian Health Service to the Department of the Interior.