Domestic Preparedness

DomesticPreparedness met with Judith Miller, Author and Journalist. The author and Pulitzer Prize-winning former investigative reporter for The New York Times discusses New York City and Los Angeles police department strategies on counter-terrorism.

DomesticPreparedness met with Dr. Robert P. Kadlec, Director, Biodefense and Public Health Practice, PTRM Management Consultants. The key architect of the 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazard Preparedness Act, which established the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), provides his insights on homeland-security medical...

DomesticPreparedness met with Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, Chief, National Guard Bureau. The Chief of the National Guard Bureau provides an update on how Guard units are supporting states in their domestic missions, while also serving as forward-deployed assets for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) in responding to a national incident or event. Also: An...

DomesticPreparedness met with Paul E. Jarris, MD, MBA, Executive Director, Association of State and Territorial Health Officers (ASTHO), who provides the perspective of state health officials today on a host of public health preparedness issues, stressing interdisciplinary integration and the importance of interoperable networked systems for the tracking of diseases, vaccine distribution, and pati...

DomesticPreparedness met with John F. Clark, Director, U.S. Marshals Service. The director of the U.S. Marshals Service details the wide variety of support – technical and operational – the USMS provides to state and local law-enforcement agencies in times of emergency, whether they are natural disasters or terrorist/security threats.

Domestic Preparedness met with Captain Michael B. Anderson, National Program Manager, Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS). In this wide-ranging invterview, Captain Anderson discusses mass-casualty preparedness, highlighting the current emphasis on regional collaboration, implementation of HSPD-8, best-in-show MMRS steering committees, and this month’s move of MMRS to FEMA.

DomesticPreparedness met with Captain Michael B. Anderson, National Program Manager, Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS). In this wide-ranging invterview, Captain Anderson discusses mass-casualty preparedness, highlighting the current emphasis on regional collaboration, implementation of HSPD-8, best-in-show MMRS steering committees, and this month’s move of MMRS to FEMA.

DomesticPreparedness met Richard Mirgon, Second Vice President, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO). He focuses primarily on how the National Joint TERT (Telecommunicator Emergency Response Task Force) Initiative has helped his state but includes a wealth of other helpful information including, but not limited to, the qualifications for telecommuter credentialing, the requ...

Domestic Preparedness met with Courtney B. Banks, Vice President, Homeland Security, Raytheon Company. The vice president for Raytheon’s homeland-security strategic business area provides a rundown on the company’s homeland-security and homeland-defense capabilities.

Domestic Preparedness met with Colonel Patrick Sharon, USA, Deputy Director, Joint Requirements Office for CBRN Defense. The deputy director of the Pentagon’s Joint Requirements Office (JRO) for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense discusses what his office is implementing in the field of CBRN defense and its applications for support to civil authorities.

DomesticPreparedness met with Kevin Yeskey, M.D., Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Preparedness and Emergency Operations, HHS. A high-level HHS preparedness official gives his views on improvements to the department’s preparedness and emergency operations programs; the transfer of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) from DHS to HHS; NIMS compliance efforts; and state drug and vaccine dis...

DomesticPreparedness met with Rear Admiral W. Craig Vanderwagen, M.D., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and Chief Preparedness Officer, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and Chief Preparedness Officer, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt's principal advisor on bioterrorism and other public heal...

Domestic Preparedness met with Admiral John O. Agwunobi, MD, MBA, MPH, Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The leading HHS authority on pandemic preparedness details how his department supports the bottom-up planning and preparedness approach focused at the local level and backed up by federal development of epidemiological surveillance and the vaccine sup...

DomesticPreparedness met Scott J. Becker, Executive Director, Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL). The APHL executive director discusses the role of public health laboratories in major health emergencies and tells how their disease-testing capabilities can assist both bioterrorist and chemical-incident responses under the multi-tiered Laboratory Response Network (LRN).

DomesticPreparedness met Michael Fraser, PhD, Deputy Executive Director, National Association of County and City Health Officials ( NACCHO ). The NACCHO deputy executive director details his association’s support to local health departments (LHDs) and emergency-response agencies responsible for bioterrorism and pandemic influenza preparedness, while highlighting the roles of the Medical Reserve Co...

Domestic Preparedness met with CDR Melissa Sanders, RD, Branch Chief, Hospital Bioterrorism Preparedness, Health Resources and Services (HRSA). The HRSA head of the National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program (NBHPP) provides an illuminating program overview and details the support needed for equipment acquisition, pandemic planning, training, and NIMS compliance.

DomesticPreparedness met with Dr. Michael G. Kurilla, Director of the Office of BioDefense Research Affairs and Associate Director for BioDefense Product Development, NIAID. The NIH director for biodefense research and associate director for biodefense product development at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) discusses NIAID’s biodefense research initiatives to catal...

DomesticPreparedness met with Vayl Oxford, Director, Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), Department of Homeland Security to discuss his views on the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, the DNDO partnerships with state and local agencies, and a broad spectrum of forward-looking R&D programs and initiatives. The continuing threat of nuclear or radiological terrorism in the light of...

Domestic Preparedness met with Colonel George W. Korch Jr., USA, Commander, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Colonel Korch discusses the USAMRIID core mission and explains how it can serve the U.S. public-health and first-responder communities both as a laboratory and training resource.

DomesticPreparedness Publisher Martin Masiuk met with Marion Cain III, Director of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) and Dr. Martha Lavender, the CDP’s Associate Director for Training and Education.

DomPrep’s John F. Morton met with Thomas J. Lockwood, Director, Office of National Capital Region (NCR) Coordination, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to discuss Lockwood's views on the need to work in close coordination with the Washington, D.C., Council of Governments, the prioritization of all-hazards security plans, integrated training requirements, & the special roles played by r...

DomPrep’s John F. Morton met with Former Fire Chief Lynn A. Miller, Emergency Management Coordinator, Winchester (Virginia) Emergency Management. A Shenandoah Valley emergency management coordinator details how his four-state region is implementing a regional preparedness model 100 miles west of Washington, DC.

DomPrep’s John F. Morton met with Admiral Thad W. Allen, USCG, Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard Commandant, probably best known for his role as the federal coordinator for the 2005 Katrina and Rita recovery operations, discusses the Coast Guard’s interagency and intergovernmental linkages that serve and improve national preparedness. How the Coast Guard is “bureaucratically multi-lin...

DomPrep’s John F. Morton met with Brigadier General Simon Perry, Israel National Police. Israel’s deputy police attaché to North America discusses his country’s counter-terrorism training program for U.S. law enforcement personnel and the increasing threat from homemade explosives while emphasizing prevention, intelligence-led policing, and an overall law-enforcement strategy that “enables citizen...

DomPrep’s John F. Morton met with Brigadier General Simon Perry, Israel National Police. Israel’s deputy police attaché to North America discusses his country’s counter-terrorism training program for U.S. law enforcement personnel and the increasing threat from homemade explosives while emphasizing prevention, intelligence-led policing, and an overall law-enforcement strategy that “enables citizen...