Dr. Dekker is currently the Chief Medical Officer of the Division of Developmental Disabilities for the State of Arizona.  He is committed to the Mission of advocating for our members in DDD.  Previously he retired after 37 years of federal service, lastly being a member of the Primary Care Service Line at the Gallup Indian Medical Center in the Indian Health Service. 

Born and raised in Western Michigan he graduated from Hope College in Holland Michigan.  He completed his Osteopathic education at Michigan State University in 1978.  He completed his internship and family medicine residency at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and an Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine fellowship at Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.  As a Public Health Service Scholar he served Chicago’s South Side for fourteen years.  He was Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (Children’s Mercy Hospital) during his four years in Kansas City.  He served in the Indian Health Service from 1998 to 2010 in the Phoenix Indian Medical Center as the Associate Director, Ambulatory Care and Community Health and 2020 to 2022 at the Gallup Indian Medical Center.  He also served in the Department of Defense and the Northern Arizona VA Healthcare System.

Dr. Dekker is board certified in Family Practice and Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment, Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Addiction Medicine and Pain Medicine.  He is a Fellow in numerous professional societies.  His areas of expertise include developmental disorders, addiction medicine, chronic pain syndromes, infomatics, high risk youth, domestic violence and behavioral health.   Past faculty appointments include clinical professorships at George Washington University (Washington DC), and currently at the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine and Andrew Taylor Still University (Mesa, AZ).