Moira McGuire

CAPT Moira McGuire recently retired after 30 years of service as a nurse officer with the US Public Health Service where she served as Division Chief of Integrative Health & Wellness at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Chief of the Arts in Health Program a first-of-its-kind program she conceptualized and implemented at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence.

She has worked extensively with vulnerable populations in behavioral health and oncology settings, and in 2010 was hand-selected to establish the Sea Services Warrior Clinic at the National Naval Medical Center where she used her skills and experience to craft and enhance the care of our country’s wounded, ill, and injured service members as the Program Manager. She served as a member of the US Public Health Service Mental Health Team 3 from its inception in 2006 until her retirement in 2022 and served as Team Commander from 2012 to 2015.  She deployed and/or facilitated over 16 deployments including Hurricane Sandy, the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Unaccompanied Children Mission, and the Ebola response. 

She is the founder of the annual Healing Arts Exhibit at Walter Reed, currently in its 20th year, which provides a showcase for those using the arts in their treatment and recovery experiences; a plank owner of the Public Health Service Choral Ensemble, for which she served as co-lead for 14 years; and a founding member of the National Initiative for Arts & Health Across the Military in partnership with Americans for the Arts.

She is the daughter of a Marine opera singer/voice teacher father and pianist/painter/playwright mother who studied Irish Dance, ballet, piano, violin, flute, and harp.  The focus of her professional work lies in the belief that creativity and expression are not only essential elements in the treatment of illness and injury, but in the prevention of them as well.