Home / Meet the Team: David Vasquez

Meet the Team: David Vasquez

Tell me a little bit about yourself, such as where you grew up and your background leading up to joining CVN?

My name is David Vasquez, I am 30 years young. I love long walks on the beach at sunset…….. lol. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York in a neighborhood called Bushwick. Extremely humble beginnings that I am forever grateful for. I played sports throughout my life at competitive levels until I joined the Navy in 2013. There I served until August 2019 and it lead me to joining CVN on October 2019.

Can you tell me about your time in service?

The year twas’ 2013 when I was awoken by a kind man screaming in my ear lol. Went through boot camp in 2013 in Illinois. Then went to Texas and North Carolina for training. After that time, I was finally considered a Hospital Corpsman (the jack of all trades and master at none). I’ve been stationed in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. I’ve deployed and have been privileged to see South America and the Caribbean.

What was it like returning to civilian life?

It was a culture shock. It was different and the adjusting is still happening for me to this day. There are just customs that you learn when serving that become second nature. I know for me the biggest ones are using certain terms that people who have served would know and understand but the general public may not. I also use the 24 hour time format for everything.

You’ve taken life experience and built a career to help others, what was your greatest takeaway from this process?

In the management realm, I always strive to make changes that positively impact individual receiving care as well as the folks who are providing the care. Mental Health is a very sensitive subject area for anyone so anything I can assist in doing to make it an easier experience is what I’d strive to do.

How have things been going at the clinic since you arrived?

Ebbs and flows is the best way I’d be able to describe it. Just like life, there are ups and there are downs. For our clinic in particular, we were open for a week before the pandemic hit and forced everyone to work from home. So, creating processes, procedures, and work flows from home was challenging and reintegrating to the clinic was challenging because we didn’t have a foundation to work off of. We worked through it though and I believe we are in a great place now and hopefully we continue to just grow and improve.

Have you faced challenges so far in your time at the clinic?

Turnover of positions throughout the clinic and the pandemic would be the challenges I’ve experienced.

What do you hope for the clinic and your clients?

I hope that the clinic continues to grow and has a greater impact on the community. We are in a very unique area in Jacksonville in that we have a military installation to the north, south, east, and west of us. I believe we can have a great impact on the Southeast region and I’m hoping CVN continues to expand throughout the United States.

What do you like to do for fun?

Spend time with my family and watching my son just be a kid. Playing sports, video games, board games, card games, etc. I love cooking. I love to sing and listen to music. I love to laugh. Lastly, I love to make coffee (Basically a barista lol)

Favorite sports team?

I will break it down by sport