Army Colonel (Ret) Dr. Jess D. Edison is Professor and Rheumatology Division Director at the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD.

Dr. Edison is a clinical rheumatologist, educator, researcher, and leader in military rheumatology. He sees patients weekly in the rheumatology clinic at Walter Reed, where he is key clinical faculty and attends on the inpatient consult service. Dr. Edison began his career in Graduate Medical Education as the Chief of Medical Residents at Madigan Army Medical Center. He went on to serve as the Associate Program Director for the Transitional Year program and the Associate Program Director for the Rheumatology Fellowship program at Walter Reed. From 2014 - 2022, Dr. Edison served as the Program Director of the Rheumatology Fellowship at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, National Capital Consortium, graduating 17 fellows and maintaining a 100% board pass rate. Active in Undergraduate Medical Education, he is the prior site director for the internal medicine clerkship at Walter Reed and currently serves as an ambulatory and ward attending for the clerkship.  Dr. Edison has served in various administrative leadership roles, including Chief of Medicine, Deputy Commander for Clinical Services, Chief of Rheumatology, and Deputy Chief of Medicine for Military Operations at Walter Reed. Dr. Edison led an effort as the DoD-Co-Champion of the osteoarthritis (OA) clinical practice guideline development team in 2014 and again as Co-Champion for the revision in 2020. His clinical leadership brought evidence-based care for this difficult-to-treat disease to front-line practitioners in the DoD and VA. Dr. Edison served as the Consultant to the Army Surgeon General from 2017 to 2021 and played a crucial role in defining the role of the military rheumatologist for the next generation. While on active duty, COL (Ret) Edison deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 115th Combat Support Hospital and served as medical support for our Congressional leaders on congressional delegations (CODELS). He currently serves as the Division Director for Rheumatology, Department of Medicine. Dr. Edison has committed his research efforts to better understanding autoimmune diseases that impact the lives of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines and their families. Since 2009, he has worked with several teams to expand our understanding of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus utilizing clinical data and the Department of Defense serum repository to expand our understanding of the preclinical phases of these conditions.