Commanding presence; Tucker rose through ranks rapidly in his Army career.(Special Feature: ACHE Awards)

Byline: Alice Hohl

Hospital chief executive officers might dream of receiving a sharp salute from their employees and having their orders carried out the moment they are spoken, but Lt. Col. Jessie Tucker III says running an Army hospital isn't that easy.

Tucker, the recipient of the American College of Healthcare Executives 2007 Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for young healthcare executive of the year, is the first active-duty military officer to receive the award.

Tucker, 39, says his resume is dense with accomplishments at a young age mostly because of the nature of his U.S. Army career. "I've had a very uncustomary career in the Army,'' Tucker says. "It's difficult for us to get the level of assignment that is necessary for the award. But I have been a CEO pretty much my entire career. You have to be in the right place at the right time.''

Tucker grew up in a military family, but as a child suffering from seborrheic dermatitis, he always wanted to be a doctor. "I always wondered why they couldn't figure out what was wrong with my skin,'' he says. "As I got older, I realized that wasn't really my calling.'' Tucker majored in business, but later, he says, "I felt the call of the medical field again.''

Tucker says he joined the Army Reserve in 1985 while studying business at the University of South Carolina. The Army offered him an active-duty commission, and he requested healthcare administration. "It's based on academic performance, previous military experience and what the Army needs at the time,'' he said.

After serving as a medical platoon leader during the first Gulf War, the Army sent Tucker for several postgraduate degrees in healthcare administration. He earned his master's in business administration from Troy (Ala.) University, a master's in management from Bowie (Md.) State University, and a doctorate in healthcare administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. When he wasn't in an academic program, he was heading clinics and hospitals all over the world, including Kaiserslautern, Germany, and the Fox Army Health Center, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., or teaching healthcare administration.