Growing up on a farm in Michigan, service was always top of mind for Gordon Peters, MD, Senior Product Medical Director.
“I always wanted to be a doctor, but I also always wanted to be a pilot,” Dr. Peters says. “Then I found out that you could combine them and be a flight surgeon.”
Right after high school, he enlisted at the United States Air Force Academy. After graduating, he attended military medical school — and from there, spent 23 years as a flight surgeon, traveling around the world. During his first assignment, Dr. Peters went to Korea as part of an F-16 squadron. He flew three to four times per week, and when he wasn’t flying, he was seeing patients.
“I flew and took care of folks in combat zones, and I took care of folks at home and planned everything in between,” Dr. Peters says.
A shift in service
Dr. Peters was deployed to practically every combat zone in the latter 20th and early 21st centuries. He loved his work but had become a family man during his decades of service and missed his children. In 2012, Dr. Peters retired from the military to split his time being closer to his family in Spokane, Washington, and working at military care clinics around the world.
When COVID hit and that kind of travel and continued service was less feasible, Dr. Peters was recruited by BlueCross.
In his current role, Dr. Peters focuses on the care received by our members who are Medicare and Medicaid eligible. He also helps teams in planning related to Medicare coverage, ensuring government approval of our products, and training clinical personnel.
The importance of teamwork
Dr. Peters’ military service influenced the values he brings to BlueCross. An example is the sense of accomplishment he finds from teamwork.
“If you’ve built that same sense of trust and commitment in your team, then when you’re down or getting slogged by some type of work, they’ll help pick up the work and carry on,” Dr. Peters says.
Teamwork, Dr. Peters explains, provides an opportunity to use everyone’s skill set effectively since each person brings something different to the table.
During his military service, Dr. Peters found himself in many stressful situations and learned how to quickly think and persevere. He also learned that in difficult times, it’s important to lead by example while doing challenging work.
Dr. Peters believes he has done the same thing at BlueCross. Even when difficult situations come his team’s way, whether that is a computer issue or suggesting a different course of care for our members, they have found ways to carry on as a team.
Recognizing the work of our veteran employees
Dr. Peters participated in this year’s Veterans Day cultural awareness session for BlueCross employees, and he hopes BlueCross recruits more veterans moving forward. He believes veterans bring a lot to our organization since they’ve overcome stressful obstacles — making them the problem solvers and mission-focused leaders they are today.
Marie is a senior Public Relations and Advertising major at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn. She joined the BlueCross corporate communications team as an intern in July 2024.