Chapter Town Hall 2025: Pacific Chapter: Safety

Andrew Melnyczenko's combined military and civilian experience in Hyperbaric Medicine spans 23 years. He is the Technical and Safety Director of the Hyperbaric and Altitude Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic. He is also a UHMS member and serves as the chair of the UHMS safety committee. Andrew’s professional interests lie in education, emergency preparedness, and advancing the practical use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

Gray Ladd is a retired Navy Diver after 24 years of active duty service. He was stationed all over the nation and performed UWSH, Salvage, Readiness and Training, Combat Swimmer, and Special Warfare with an emphasis on Mixed Gas diving, Operational Risk Management, and diving and hyperbaric systems. After the military, he studied Fire Science and NFPA code compliance and worked as a Firefighter/EMT for a year. During that time he kept his foot in the waters of hyperbarics and diving as he worked part time at Virginia Masons' Center for Hyperbaric Medicine (CHM). Gray assumed the full time role as Hyperbaric Engineer and Safety Director at VMMCs' large 24 person multiplace CHM in the summer of 2022 where he continues to work to this day. 

Leo Tanaka is a former Air Force senior flight surgeon, dive medical officer, and pararescue medical director.  His interests are in immersion pulmonary edema and special operations dive medicine, with presentations given at the Special Operations Medical Scientific Assembly and posters discussed at the UHMS annual conference.  He is also well-versed in medical standards, helping create the first special warfare medical standards for the United States Air Force (USAF). He looks to build further evidence for the UHM field, to include further developments to a hyperbaric registry and to advance acceptance of further indications for HBOT.

Richard, widely knows by the nickname, "Gus", has over fourty-eight years experience in clinical, supervisory, teaching, staff and middle management positions in acute care hospitals.

This experience includes forty years as a Respiratory Therapist, twenty years as EMT-I, twenty-three years as a Naval Reserve Hospital Corpsman, twenty-three years in Hyperbaric Medicine, eighteen years’ experience in wound and burn care, and nineteen years as a Registered Nurse.

Experience in hyperbaric medicine has included Technical Director, Program Director, Nurse Manager and Critical Care Educator specific to hyperbaric medicine.

Member and Special Expert for the National Fire Protection Association, NFPA 99 Technical Committee, Hyperbaric and Hypobaric Facilities –March 20, 2023 to Present

Currently, Gus teaches hyperbaric medicine across the U.S. and beyond, serves as the Principle for R.B. Gustavson Consultants, LLC, and is studying with Walden University Online, looking forward to earning his Doctor of Public Health.

Seth presently serves as the Sharp Grossmont Hospital Hyperbaric Program Lead and Safety Director. Within the Hyperbaric Department, Seth supervises chamber operations, daily patient care, maintenance, and training. He has an extensive background as a diver, with more than 22 years of experience. He holds certifications as a Hyperbaric Technologist, Diver Medic, and Hyperbaric Safety Director. Seth is a certified Commerical Diver through the Association of Commerical Divers International; as a commercial diver, he worked predominately as a US Navy contractor and minefield maintenance diver. He is also certified as a Course Director and Emergency First Response Instructor-Trainer through the Professional Association of Diving Instructors; he has certified more than 500 recreational divers. Seth is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and National University Polytechnic Institute.