Dr. Lee J. Barton is the Chief of Staff of the VA New Mexico Health Care System
Dr. Barton began his career with the VA in 2010 as an anesthesiologist at the VA New Mexico Health Care System, advancing into leadership roles as Chief of Anesthesia in 2014 and then acting Chief of Staff in 2016. For his move to the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, he served as staff anesthesiologist and critical care physician and then became Chief of Anesthesia. Before arriving at the VA, Dr. Barton was a physician in the Army, where he rose to the rank of colonel. He was selected as Medical Director and Chief of Anesthesia Service for Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) in Honolulu, Hawaii, after holding the position of Chief of Anesthesia at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany. He deployed to Baghdad, Iraq in 2008 and to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait in 2012. Dr. Barton chose a short assignment in operational medicine early in his military service, being selected as the Battalion Surgeon for the 2nd Ranger Battalion based in Fort Lewis, Washington. Dr. Barton holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and a Medical Doctorate (MD) from New York Medical College, attending on the Health Professions Scholarship Program through the Army. He was resident and chief resident of anesthesiology at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Barton graduated from the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School in 2016, on the Leadership and Finance track; he was initiated into the national business honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma. Through 2019–20, he completed fellowship training at the University of California, San Francisco, managing patients in one of the country’s busiest critical care medicine programs during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Barton is double-board certified in Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine as well as a testamur in Transesophageal Echocardiography.