Kat Bailey

As chief communications officer, Bailey works to create and enhance regional public trust and support of VA’s mission by establishing communications goals and objectives tied to regional priorities in one of the largest coverage areas in the VA healthcare system, encompassing most of the state of Texas.

Bailey has held key positions within the Air Force Civil Service having served as strategic communications partner and digital media content manager for the Air Force’s Personnel Center, where she provided policy and program guidance to Airmen, Retirees, and their families via web and social media platforms. Before joining Civil Service, Bailey earned her Project Management Professional certification at USAA as the project administrator to the Human Resources Transformation project, delivering a world-class, employee-centric experience for almost 33,000 employees. Prior to her assignment, Bailey had been the Public Affairs Officer at VA Bedford Healthcare System since March 2020.

Bailey, a retired Air Force Reserve senior master sergeant, last served as Chief, Medical Records Research Team at AFPC, where she was instrumental in establishing the Air Force program to centralize the medical records disposition process to VA for separating/retiring Total Force Airmen, wrote the Memorandum of Agreement between the AF Chief of Staff and VA, and developed the processing instructions for DoD-wide implementation.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from St. Leo University, St. Leo, Florida, and an Associates in Applied Science in Human Resources and one in Public Affairs from the Community College of the Air Force, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.

VISN 17 oversees seven healthcare systems: VA North Texas, Central Texas, West Texas, Amarillo, El Paso, South Texas Veterans, and VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend, which provide healthcare services for more than 628,000 enrolled Veterans.