James Hickman

2013 College Recipient. College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences

James Hickman, a Physician Assistant, is Country Medical Director for Civilian Employees attached to the US Army Materials Command at Kabul Air Field.

A licensed medical professional for more than 20 years, Mr Hickman has for the past three years worked in the Afghan War Zone bringing medical expertise and supplies to assist the Afghan people.  He is responsible for Health, Safety and Occupation Medicine for 850 employees.

He also worked with the local British NGO to evaluate and contain a measles epidemic and with local Afghan Nationals in teaching and evaluation of patient care.

Mr Hickman is skilled in providing a diverse range of health care services, including diagnosing and treating patients of all ages, and interpreting labs and x-rays and is comfortable in providing medical care to displaced persons in remote areas filled with poverty, war and disease, where English is not the primary language and where support personnel are highly limited.

He has served as the  point person for issues and treatment for Sexually Transmitted Infections, HIV and TB and has experience in primary and pediatric care to indigenous populations in underserved areas in high-stress, high-pressure remote US environments and third world areas such as Rwanda.  His work has included volunteer efforts in Kenya where he helped to establish a new hospital and clinic in a remote, medically underserved region.

His JCU degree in Tropical Medicine has served him well in his diagnosing and treatment of diseases not typically endemic to traditional Western Medicine including Typhus, the Plague and Hanta Viruses.

Mr Hickman graduated from James Cook University in 2005 with a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.  He has an Associate of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from Cuyahoga College, Cleveland, Ohio (1990), and a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts from Hiram College, Ohio (1988).