A Conversation With Dr. Orien Tulp On Balancing Academic And Military Careers

Dr. Orien Tulp is a distinguished professor, author, medical researcher, founder, and president of the University of Science, Arts and Technology. He is a career military veteran and dedicated volunteer who has served on hundreds of medical civic action mission teams in the USA and abroad.

Dr. Tulp earned a BS, MS, and Ph.D. from the University of Vermont, followed by NIH-sponsored post-graduate studies specializing in Nutrition, Endocrinology, and Metabolism at the Clinical Research Center of the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He is also a graduate of the Vermont Military Academy. He has served in leadership and academic roles throughout his career, including a professorship at Drexel University in Philadelphia and at the University of Science, Arts, and Technology in Montserrat for almost four decades.

Dr. Tulp has lectured on a wide variety of topics, including aspects of medical nutrition, medical and biomedical research, endocrinology, and metabolism, with an emphasis on nutritional medicine, and has mentored dozens of graduate students for the Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees. He has conducted extensive research on obesity, metabolism, and diabetes and has written hundreds of scientific papers, abstracts, and book chapters, including one of the first contributors to the new journal Academia Biology, launched in 2023, and serves on the editorial boards of several professional journals.

In addition to a successful academic career, Dr. Orien Tulp has a long-term military career. Enlisting at age 17, Dr. Tulp recently finished over 43 years of active, reserve, and National Guard duty, retiring in the grade of Colonel. He was awarded the US Legion of Merit Medal for exceptional meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements, in addition to numerous others, including the US Army Meritorious Service Medal, the award of Order of Military Medical Merit (by Surgeon General, USA), The US Army Commendation medal with 7 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Garde du Nationale Trophy, (by National Guard Assoc of the USA), and a certificate of appreciation for his medical support of the International competition by the Conseil de Sport Militaire, of the International Military Sports Council in addition to accolades for his support of the International Special Winter Olympics and many other awards and decorations for his military service.

Dr. Tulp is a passionate volunteer and has participated in hundreds of humanitarian and medical civic action missions in the USA and abroad. He has also received a Presidential Volunteer Service Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the White House signed by President Clinton, and the Citizenship Medal, Awarded by Sons of the American Revolution.

Dr. Tulp enjoys football and has been an avid skier for many years. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife, Carla.

Can you tell us about your experience balancing military service with your career?

Since I retired a few years ago, there isn’t a lot to balance at this time. But back in the day, there was a lot of balancing. There was a lot of scheduling and making sure that you could make the two careers remain productive without interfering with each other. So it’s a balancing act as to what to do. It requires a bit of diplomacy from time to time.

Most of my career was through the reserves. The reserves are weekend activities for the most part, whereas academia is mostly a nine-to-five, Monday through Friday job, and you won’t find much outside of that schedule other than special ceremonies, sporting events, and commencements on the weekends. So scheduling-wise, they don’t interfere all that much.

The downside is when you have to do obligations like annual training, short tours, etc. It’s a balancing act to schedule those times when you have your academic recess. And so it keeps you busy and committed every day, but with different activities.

They both take a lot of energy and a lot of work. There are requirements in academia to stay up to date and keep your lectures ready. Academia doesn’t stop for the professor at five o’clock. When you get home, you’ve got to write papers. You’ve got to write exams. You’ve got to write grants. You’ve got to do all sorts of things to support the nine-to-five.

And then, on the military side, this obligation wasn’t just for two four- or five-hour days on the weekend because you have to prepare for that weekend in advance. You have to have all your equipment ready, and you have to have all of your documents prepared. Running the military is kind of different from a university. There’s a lot of overlap in terms of administrative procedures and policies and things like that. You have to make sure that you complete all of those things to continue to stay active.

You have to be able to contribute to a society where the missions take place. It gives you an opportunity to apply what you learned in academia to the military and what you learned in the military back to the civilian and academic worlds.

I still remember one of the courses I took in the Military Academy, “Methods of Instruction.” How do you reach everyone in that group? From the lowest ranking person to the highest ranking person? How do you do that diplomatically and effectively? Those are things that you’re never going to learn in a Teacher’s College, most likely, as they present it from a different perspective. So there’s a heavy blending of the two and a lot of overlap. They really do complement each other. It’s just a matter of scheduling and paying attention.

What strategies have you used to manage the demands of both your military obligations and your professional responsibilities?

Well, paying attention and listening. One thing that you learn on the military side, and you're supposed to learn on the academic side, although I'm not sure it always happens, is that you have to learn to listen.

You have to learn that in medicine because when you're interviewing a patient, for example, they will often tell you what is wrong with them, what they think is wrong with them, and what they think will work to fix it. And you have to pick up on those points to develop a strategy and treatment plan, and then you can put that plan into action. They go away happy, and you go on to the next patient.

You have to learn to listen. That is important in academia and the military, and it is important in every career field you will ever consider. Learn what's happened before you; if you can't learn what's happened before you, you don't have a good basis for moving forward.

Patience is a virtue, and you have got to be patient. Sometimes it takes people five minutes to tell their story. Then you recap a little bit and say, "Well, you said this," and then you move on from there. Also, there are differences in communication because it depends on who you're trying to communicate with. You have to make it make sense at their level and say some of it in their language so that they understand what you're talking about. I don't mean different languages per se, but in words that they understand, not all medical terminology. That's one of the problems that a lot of physicians make. They'll start talking about something in terms they understand, and the patient has no idea what they're talking about. They don't know what that cardiovascular symptom means, you know, to explain in simple terms, or whatever the issue might be. Make it so they understand it because they're coming at it from a different perspective.