Medical commander leads through changing times Published Sept. 28, 2006 By Tech. Sgt. Brian Davidson 375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Scott Air Force Base, Il. -- Taking care of the medical needs of more than 60,000 people and 12,000 aeromedical patients annually with today's Base Realignment and Closure mandates and Force Shaping initiatives may seem like an impossible task for many people, but for the new 375th Medical Group commander, getting the job done is no different than taking care of a single patient --treat the person, not the symptoms. Col. (Dr.) Diane Ritter took command of Scott's Medical Group in July amidst drastic changes in how the hospital operates and the services it will offer as directed by the 2005 BRAC requirements, but she refuses to let those changes distract from the group's responsibility to care for its beneficiaries. As both a doctor and a commander, she believes that successful leadership in the military medical community is accomplished by empowering her people with the training, equipment and confidence they need to get the job done. Standing just a little taller than five feet, seven inches, with soft grey-blue eyes and short-cropped dark blond hair, Colonel Ritter offers a quiet, unimposing demeanor, and she always comes out from behind her desk when conducting business with visitors to her office. In addition to being a doctor, she is the mother of four children and her nurturing nature is evident to most people who meet her, giving the impression that her instinct would be to place a gentle hand on a patient's forehead to see if they have a fever instead of using a thermometer. Unlike many senior officers who decided on a military command track before they were even old enough to vote, Colonel Ritter has progressed in her career one step at a time while balancing her family life, education and professional development. She graduated from J. Oliver High School in Huntsville, Ala., in 1974 during the peak of the U.S. space program. Most of her peers were the children of highly-educated people who, in one way or another, worked in support of the NASA mission, and naturally set pretty high expectations for their children. For Colonel Ritter, it was no different. Her father, Bill Campbell, was a computer programmer and systems analyst for Boeing, and also a navigator in the Air Force Reserve. Her childhood memories include helping to polish his boots and saying "see you later, navigator," whenever he was leaving to fly a mission. After graduating from high school, she went to the University of Alabama in Birmingham and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, and then took a hospital-based Medical Technology program that led to a series of laboratory jobs at various hospitals. In 1982, she moved to Mobile, Ala., where she landed a job as the supervisor of the chemistry lab at the University of South Alabama Medical Center. During her time as a Medical Technologist, she had the opportunity to assist doctors with some procedures, which contributed to her decision to become a doctor. She has never doubted her decision, because she enjoys interacting with patients -- something she didn't get to do much working in the lab. She graduated from medical school in 1988, and it was during her internal medicine residency that an Air Force recruiter came to the hospital where she worked and "gave his pitch," ultimately leading to her commission as an Air Force doctor in 1992. Along the way, the colonel married George Ritter, a lawyer and Certified Public Accountant who can claim a lot of the responsibility for his wife's success because he put his own career on the back burner in order to support her education and career. In addition to being educated professionals, the Ritters define themselves as parents, with two teenagers and one pre-teen at home, 16-year-old Scott, 15-year-old Julie and 11-year-old Hanna. In addition, their oldest daughter, Heather, is now grown with two children of her own, making the Ritters grandparents as well. Through a series of assignments and continuing education, Colonel Ritter developed her skills as a doctor and leader. She credits her professional development to a handful of mentors she has had along the way who taught her that a person cannot have "success" defined for them by someone else. Instead, each person has to define success for themselves. One thing that she also learned and that she hopes to teach the people who work for her at Scott is that everyone should strive to leave things a "little bit" better than when they arrived here. If everyone does that, all those "little bits" add up to an overall big improvement. For her, that will be the measure of her success at Scott. While hands-on patient care is her passion, Colonel Ritter has taken the command track because she believes it can help her have a bigger impact on overall patient care. While serving as a commander means she doesn't get one-on-one patient interaction as much as she would like, she does get to work on giving her people the training, equipment and confidence they need to get the job done - and hopefully make a "little bit" of difference for each person who passes through her door.