Camp Lejeune, NC  –   Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune promotes a culture of excellence through building great people, leaders, and teams who exemplify clinical excellence, academic distinction, and outstanding leadership across all levels of professional practice.

Major recognition of that excellence came during the 2025 Military Health System Conference in Cleveland, Ohio when Navy Medicine announced that nurses from NMCCL were awarded the MHS Nursing Leadership Excellence Award in all three military categories. Awardees included Navy Cmdr. Reginald Middlebrooks as Senior Officer, Lt. Cmdr. Alainna Crotty as Midgrade Officer, and Lt. j.g. Jesse Brooks as Junior Officer.

According to award criteria, the MHS Nursing Leadership Excellence awards honors military nurses who have “demonstrated exemplary leadership skills and exceptional compassion and commitment to patients, colleagues, and the profession of nursing, resulting in noteworthy clinical or administrative accomplishments and contributing to the improved image and practice of nursing within the Military Health System.”

“Receiving the award is awesome, but it’s less of a reflection of what I did, and more a reflection on the leadership putting me in that position,” said Brooks. “In a culture like this one, I think setting the standard is important, and Cmdr. Middlebrooks and Lt. Cmdr. Crotty are different from other leaders; they engaged me, made suggestions… but in the end, let me make the decisions and run with it.  I think that’s something to emulate, and it made an impression on me.”

Crotty mirrored his sentiments citing leadership engagement style as the reason for her success.

“Our culture here starts from our senior leaders who allow us to take the opportunities to drive enterprise level change,” said Lt. Cmdr. Alainna Crotty. “I am not given directives; they let me lead and gain experience that I need to move forward. They push us to jump on enterprise level initiatives that really put our names out [into the community].”

In addition to the awards, Middlebrooks, along with Cmdr. Sarah Louk, were selected as fellows in the University of Pennsylvania/Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship – a first in NMCCL history.

“This opportunity stems from the initiative and vision of Lt. Cmdr. Alainna Crotty who led much of the groundwork behind our successful application,” said Middlebrooks. “This fellowship is designed to advance health care and drive transformative change within the organization.”

The fellowship is a combination of in-person and virtual sessions running through May 2026 and will allow the fellows to solve some of health care’s biggest challenges while maintaining an environment that fosters innovation within NMCCL.

“Camp Lejeune nurses are not only excelling within the walls of NMCCL but are also shaping policy, leading [Defense Health Agency]-level committees, and earning competitive research funding – securing over $200,000 in grants to advance evidence-based practice,” said Middlebrooks. “Each day, our nurses demonstrate a deep commitment to improving the care for our warfighters and beneficiaries. I believe the recent wave of recognition simply reflects a long-standing culture of excellence that our nurses have worked hard to build.”
 
NMCCL has provided more than 80 years of dedicated, passionate care for warfighters and beneficiaries at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.