Bassett President

Now Also Adviser

To National Guard

Effective Jan. 1, Dr. LeCates

Will Also Be State Surgeon

COOPERSTOWN – In addition to his duties as Bassett Hospital president, William LeCates has been selected to serve as the New York Army National Guard’s top medical adviser, effective Jan. 1.

A lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, Dr. LeCates will serve as state surgeon of the state Army National Guard.

In his new role, LeCates will be the senior medical adviser to Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general of the state National Guard, ensuring medical readiness and adherence to state, Pentagon and national medical standards.

He officially takes over the job on Jan. 1, replacing Col. Mathew Liepke.

LeCates is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, deployed there twice. In 2015, he was deployed to Liberia to help combat tropical and infectious diseases, including an Ebola virus outbreak.

LeCates has been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, the NATO Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terror Service Medal and the Flight Surgeon Badge.

“I’m looking forward to working with Soldiers across the state,” LeCates said. “It gives me a chance to get know areas of the New York Army National Guard that I haven’t gotten to know well. I see their great work and now I can finally meet the people who are doing it.”

LeCates is a nephrologist, a specialist in kidney diseases and hypertension, who studied at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for ten years, which included a residency and fellowship.

He is also a graduate of Amherst College and worked as an assistant economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before studying medicine.

After graduating, he returned to Cooperstown as a practicing doctor, specializing in internal medicine with a focus on kidney disease.