March 28, 2012 Dear Members of the Franz Edelman Award Selection Committee: On behalf of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) we submit this letter of endorsement for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s RealOpt Modeling and Simulation Tool. The CDC and RealOpt are most deserving of the prestigious Edelman Award for Achievement in Operational Research and Management Sciences. This tool, when utilized by local public health departments, can provide critical planning and response information that will protect the health and welfare of Americans and ultimately save lives. Since, the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent Anthrax attacks on the United States, local health departments have faced the insurmountable challenge of how to distribute and dispense life saving medical countermeasures in the aftermath of a bioterrorism incident. The emergence of the H1N1 virus which set off a worldwide influenza pandemic in 2009 also suggested that responding to an emerging infectious disease presented similar challenges for the public health community. The majority of local health departments in this country have limited resources leaving the few to take on the multitude of tasks and responsibilities to ensure the nation’s health and protection. As a result, many do not have the time and funding to develop new tools or approaches to accomplishing their work. They rely on the development of tools and resources, such as RealOpt, to aid their efforts. Many local public health professionals have shared their positive experiences with RealOpt with us and suggested that this tool greatly enhanced their planning and response capabilities. They used the tool to identify ways to improve patient flow through Points of Dispensing (PODs) and create efficiencies in the utilization of human resources in these dispensing centers. Many also utilized the program to assist them in conducting seasonal influenza clinics. While we understand that you have likely narrowed your selection for this award to outstanding companies and scientists, it is unlikely that any of these tools or products have the potential to save as many lives as the RealOpt Modeling and Simulation Tool. For this reason we hope that you will seriously consider awarding the CDC with this most prestigious award. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at (202) 507-4228. Sincerely,

Jack Herrmann, MSEd., NCC Sr. Advisor & Chief, Public Health Preparedness

Serving the cities, villages and townships of Cuyahoga County since 1919

THIS AGENCY IS AN EQUAL PROVIDER OF SERVICES AND AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER CIVIL RIGHTS ACT 1964

March 28, 2012 Dear Members of the Franz Edelman Prize Selection Committee, I am writing to provide user testimonial in support of selecting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC)/RealOpt software for the Franz Edelman Prize. It is my understanding that this honor is awarded for outstanding operations research projects that have transformed companies, entire industries and people's lives. In my opinion, the CDC/RealOpt software embody this statement. I sincerely hope that my testimonial will provide the necessary information for CDC/RealOpt to be considered for this honor. Our agency is the local general health district for 57 of the 59 communities serving over 854,000 residents of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. I have been directly involved in the development and implementation of emergency preparedness plans for our agency since 2001. Specifically, I have assisted with mass dispensing/prophylaxis planning for significant public health threats such as smallpox, anthrax, and pandemic influenza. The RealOpt software has made a significant difference in the planning and execution of our mass dispensing and mass vaccination operations. Prior to using RealOpt, our agency relied on various published sources in the emergency preparedness literature to create a “best guesstimate” for staffing resources needed to implement a mass dispensing/vaccination campaign. These “guesstimates” often led to large staffing requirements that were viewed as unrealistic or unsupportable by our local planning partners and volunteer groups. Additionally, we often had challenges with recruiting the volume of “clients” needed to create a throughput that provided adequate information to allow us to evaluate our staffing resources and operational design. I initially received a copy of the RealOpt software in 2008 while attending a workshop as part of a national preparedness conference. I also participated in a national webinar to get additional orientation to the software. These “training” opportunities created enough confidence in me to use RealOpt during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic. It was during the planning and implementation of our vaccination campaign for the pandemic that the power and value of RealOpt became evident. Serving as the incident commander for our agency’s vaccination campaign, I created several RealOpt models to help plan for operating vaccination clinics varying in type and setting. For example, we used large, community based points of dispensing (Open PODs) as well as smaller, targeted points of dispensing (Closed PODs). When the campaign was over, we had implemented 191 clinics between October 15, 2009, and April 9, 2010 with a majorty occurring in the October 2009 to January 2010 timeframe. The clinics varied in size and scope (e.g. school based to mass community clinics) and led to the vaccination of over 41,000 persons. RealOpt provided operations and decision making support as we planned for and implemented these clinics. Because we had not used RealOpt, we made it a point to evaluate whether or not the RealOpt estimates e.g. throughput was achievable during the actual operations. I can still vividly recall the briefing meeting we conducted with the POD managers where I reviewed the RealOpt information and seeing the skepticism in their eyes. The skepticism quickly turned to relief and a sense of achievement when we held an after-action meeting with them to acknowledge the success we had at the clinics. Most impressive was the fact that the hourly throughput was consistent with the RealOpt predictions and in some instances exceeded projections.

Cuyahoga County Board of Health

5550 VENTURE DRIVE PARMA, OHIO 44130

(216) 201-2000 TTY: (216) 676-1313

www.ccbh.net

TERRENCE M. ALLAN, R.S., M.P.H. Health Commissioner

Serving the cities, villages and townships of Cuyahoga County since 1919

THIS AGENCY IS AN EQUAL PROVIDER OF SERVICES AND AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER CIVIL RIGHTS ACT 1964

Because of my experience with the RealOpt software, I have been invited to deliver a hands-on workshop to orient local public health preparedness planners to the RealOpt software. To date, I have conducted four workshops consisting of staff from over 40 different health departments. It has been very apparent that local planners value the following aspects of the software: 1) the scalability of the software i.e. the software can be used to plan for large, mass clinics as well as small seasonal clinics for flu vaccine; 2) the flexibility of the software i.e. the models can be customized to meet different operational designs; and 3) the decision support of the software e.g. it helps answer critical planning questions such as “if I need to achieve a throughput of 750 people per hour, how many staff are needed in each of the operational areas of the clinic?” or “if I have 100 staff members, what is the maximum throughput that can be achieved?”. In summary, it is my opinion that the CDC/RealOpt software is worthy of the Franz Edelman Prize. It has transformed the way our agency plans for and executes mass dispensing and vaccination operations. I am confident that you will find similar stories throughout local public health agencies across the nation. Lastly, it definitely can play a significant role in saving lives by enhancing local emergency preparedness efforts where an efficient, timely response can literally mean the difference between life and death. Please feel free to contact me at 216-201-2001 ext 1600 or by email at ckippes@ccbh.net if you need additional information. Sincerely,

Christopher M. Kippes, M.S. Director of Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Informatics

Nicholas A. Toumpas Commissioner

Rick C. Cricenti

Director

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER

OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES

129 PLEASANT STREET, CONCORD, NH 03301-3857

603-271-4688 1-800-852-3345 Ext. 4688 Fax: 603-271-3001 TDD Access: 1-800-735-2964 www.dhhs.nh.gov

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Mission is to join communities and families in providing opportunities for citizens to achieve health and independence.

March 27, 2012 To the Members of the Franz Edelman Prize Selection Committee

I was first introduced to the RealOpt program as a result of the Centers for Disease Control’s on-going Strategic National Stockpile preparedness training program. It was in this class that I was first trained on its usage, and given the opportunity to return with it to New Hampshire to share with my colleagues at the state level. Many of our regional partners have also had the opportunity to participate in the CDC’s training, and have been introduced to the RealOpt application as well.

NH has an estimated 1.3 million population; unlike most other states, NH is not controlled at a county level in the traditional sense, but has the state divided into 15 Public Health Regions that are responsible for the health of the State’s population.

Since returning from the CDC training, my usage has been limited to only one actual event and several incident preplans. I have found it to be a simple, but remarkably effective planning tool. Our actual flu vaccine event planning session found this to be a remarkable planning adjunct, as we had to make preparations for the vaccination of an entire New Hampshire National Guard (NHNG) facility's personnel in a 4 hour window. We found the use of the RealOpt application to be indispensible in mapping the required registration, triage and dispensing stations, and NHNG medical personnel required to complete the process within the time allowed. In comparing the results from this most recent session, with ones from previous years, we found increases in throughput and efficiency as a result of our ability to provide all the required resources necessary for success.

We have also begun to use the RealOpt application in areas other than flu clinics; the DHHS Emergency Services Unit has utilized RealOpt for the advanced planning of evacuation reception centers in our Radiological Emergency Response Plan, to be used in case of an emergency at a nuclear plant in our state. We have two such plants, so we must contend with two distinctly different Emergency Protection Zones (EPZ’s) on either side of the state, due to the great disparity of population. We have been able to map evacuation registration setups, stations, personnel required and projected throughputs based on our population models for both areas. This has proven a valuable planning tool.

I strongly endorse the RealOpt application as very important planning and decision making tool for public health and emergency responders, and ask that you give it the recognition that it deserves. Respectfully Submitted, Brett R. Scholbe, Logistics Chief / IRMS-SNS Program Manager N.H. Department of Health and Human Services Emergency Services Unit

OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY & EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

Ctrv or NEw OnTEANSMITCHELL J. LANDRIEUMAYOR

March 30,2012

LtCoIJERRY SNEED, USMC, (RET)DIRECTOR

Members of the Franz Edelman Prize Selection Committee,

Please accept this letter as formal support and appreciation of the RealOpt Software package. Myjurisdiction relies on its capabilities immensely for the dispensing of medical countermeasures.The City of New Orleans is a current Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) region and has a2010Census population of 343,829, while the metropolitan statistical area reaches nearly 1,000,000 inpopulation. As mandated by the CRI, each jurisdiction must plan to distribute lifesavingcountermeasures to the entire jurisdiction's population within 48 hours of the decision to do so.

RealOpt has proven to be an extremely useful tool in the development of our local plans toaccomplish this mission. Our planning has ernployed the use of RealOpt at our Points ofDispensing (POD) sites to project an efficient and effective flow process. Following initialplanning, RealOpt has been used durin$ exercise creation throughout the city's Functional andFull Scale Exercises over the years byproviding possible flow pattems and layouts at the variousdrill sites to illustrate potential chokepoints and provide effective staffing placements across allthe functions of the PODs. Given the CRI's mission, effective and eff,rcient schematic lavout.flow process and proper staffing placement are mission-criticar.

The program was actually utilized during the 2009 HlNl puda.*i. influenza response. Whilethe program at that time was in its infancy in the New Orleans area, RealOpt's ease of useallowed for successful assistance in the developrnent of visitor flow at vaccine clinics across thecity. The program was easy to use and provided quick'alternative solutions in the event the flowrate was not being maximized. Time is of essence in these situations and RealOpt provides a toolto help maximize efficiencies during the planning phase.

New Orleans recently achieved a perfect score on the annual CDC Technical Assistance Review.Very few cities have been able to achieve a perfect score on this assessment and RealOpt playedan important role in our planning process. It remains a vital piece of our planning.

Sincerely,

StepPlanning Section ChiefBiodefense CoordinatorNew Orleans Homeland Security & Emergency preparedness

I3OO PERDIDO STREET * SUITE 9WO3 * NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA * 70112pHoNE 504.658.8700 * FAX 504.658 8701

Emergency Preparedness and Response

March 29, 2012 Members of the Franz Edelman Prize selection committee, Please accept my strongest support for the CDC/Real Opt computer program that increases operational efficiency for mass medical countermeasure dispensing. We have used it in critical vaccination during the H1N1 pandemic flu outbreak. The population of the counties we serve is over 800,000 in the Metro Atlanta area of Georgia. We had used Real Opt in multiple mass countermeasures exercises prior to the H1N1 outbreak and had found the program easy to use and implement in real time. During the exercises, it became apparent that in the event of a real biologic attack or event, using Real Opt output that offered smart staffing and clinic layout, we could serve more citizens efficiently and effectively with less staffing required and a lower number of overall dispensing sites. During the H1N1 outbreak we utilized the program, along with on-site evaluation by an independent team from Georgia Tech. Utilizing the Real Opt program we were able to increase throughput by over 150%. Increasing the throughput allowed us to utilize less staff and increase patient satisfaction by reducing the wait times for service and vaccine. On-going utilization of Real Opt will continue to allow local Public Health departments to optimize our limited staff resources to better provide medical countermeasures to save lives. Please contact me if you need any further information,

Pam Blackwell, R.N. Director, Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response Cobb and Douglas Public Health Phone-770-514-2333 e-mail: psblackw@dhr.state.ga.us

“YOUR HEALTH IS OUR COMMUNITY’S WEALTH”

April 4, 2012 To Whom It May Concern: It is my pleasure to write a letter in support of the revolutionary RealOpt modeling program, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the Franz Edelman Award. The RealOpt Modeling program has been an invaluable resource for the critical task of preparing the city of New Haven, CT to respond bioterrorism and other disasters.

Given that mass dispensing is beyond the scope of a health department’s normal daily activities, it is very challenging to find credible sources of information pertaining to points of dispensing. In this context, the RealOpt Modeling program has served to optimize mass dispensing operations in New Haven over the last two years

In year one, the program was used to maximize staff utilization and, as a result, POD staffing and allocation was determined for the existing two PODs in New Haven. The following year, the Health Department was interested in expanding its mass dispensing program and the model was used to determine how many more points of dispensing were needed to accommodate the City’s population of approximately 130,000. Results showed that more PODs were necessary. Since then, I have designated five more points of dispensing in the City and determined staffing requirements for each, using the minimum resource allocation function.

In conclusion, I enthusiastically support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its candidacy for the Franz Edelman Award.

Sincerely,

Cristie Duric Emergency Response Coordinator

JOHN DESTEFANO, JR MAYOR

MARIO GARCIA, MD, MSc, MPH DIRECTOR OF HEALTH

CITY OF NEW HAVEN COMMUNITY SERVICE ADMINISTRATION

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH OFFICE OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

54 Meadow Street - 9TH Floor • New Haven • Connecticut 06519 Phone 203-946-8457 • Fax 203-946-7234

www.co.carver.mn.us Equal Opportunity Employer

Public Health & Environment Division

Carver County Government Center

600 Fourth Street East

Chaska, MN 55318-2102

March 26, 2012

Members of the Franz Edelman Prize Selection Committee, I am writing to support the nomination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the 2012 Edelman Award. Specifically, the RealOpt Modeling Software created for the CDC provides local public health agencies a vital tool in developing efficient Point of Dispensing (POD) response plans. In the absence of this tool, local public health agencies would need to rely on either expensive exercises to test plans, or leave plans mostly untested. As chair of the National Association of County and City Health Official’s (NACCHO) Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) workgroup, I am able to gain a national perspective on issues that local public health agencies face around the country as they plan for an event such as an aerosolized anthrax attack. Most local public health agencies do not have the resources to conduct frequent exercises to test their POD plans. An exercise that satisfactorily tests POD plans requires a significant investment in both human and financial capital. Additionally, the limitations of an exercise only allow us to test POD throughput with at best several hundred volunteers. What RealOpt provides us is a no cost tool that can assist in validating our plans in conjunction with exercises of smaller scales. Having a modeling tool based on sound, validated algorithms, that allows us to factor in our entire local population saves us significant resources at the local level. The output from RealOpt modeling informs our POD plans. This assures that when we are able to exercise our POD operations, we are testing plans that have had prior optimization. Additionally, RealOpt allow us to test changes to our POD plans without conducting an exercise. Adding or removing processes, increasing or decreasing population, required throughput, and/or staff available for a POD can all be simulated in a few hours , versus the 6-12 months of planning that goes into a large exercise. I strongly support the CDC’s nomination for the 2012 Edelman Award. While calculating the actual and potential cost savings of the RealOpt program is well above my pay grade, I can speak from experience that it is an efficient and vital tool to assure that local public health agencies are able to continue improving emergency preparedness planning. This is especially important in a time of decreasing investment in the discipline. Sincerely,

Joshua Carlyle Planner Carver County Public Health & Environment

Wesley McDermott, MSPH4604 Wilwyn Way

Rockville, Maryland 20852

April6,201.2

Frutz Edelman Prize Selection Committeec/o Mr. Stephen C. GravesSloan School of ManagementMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridge,};4.A02l3g

Thru:

Eva K. Lee, PhDProfessor, Industrial and Systems EngineeringGeorgia Institute of Technology755 Ferst Drive, NWAtlanta, Georgia 30332-0205

Submitted via email

Distinguished Members of the Selection Committee:

This letter is submitted on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention's (CDC) 2012Edelman Award nomination for "Advancing Public Health andMedical Preparedness with Operations Ressarch." It is an honor to provide comments onthe CDC's behalf and in support of the RealOpt Software Enterprise developed by Dr.Eva Lee and her associates atthe Georgia Institute of Technology.

My experience with the RealOpt decision-support system began in 2006 whileemployed as the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Coordinator by the FairfaxCounty (Virginia) Health Department. A suburban north Virginia County of 1.1 millionpersons, Fairfax County lies in the shadow of our nation's capitol and has numerousFederal campuses and several Department of Defense installations scattered among its390 square miles. Following the 9/11 tragedies and anthrax-laced letters of 2001, rapiddevelopment of mass dispensing and vaccination capabilities became top nationalsecurity priorities. Unfortunately, very little evidence-based research existed at that timeto guide emergency planners charged with designing individual sites, much less regionalnetworks that must serve entire populations within 48 hours.

At the end of a collaborative process that spanned 15 months, the county's FINALDRAFT mass dispensing plan was ready for evaluation. In October, 2007 afull-scaleexercise was conducted to evaluate a mass dispensing point-of-dispensing (POD) staffedby 35 volunteers. Time motion data collected during the exercise was analyzed with

CDC Edelman AwardApil 6,2A12Page2

RealOpt software and software provided by the Rand Corporation. While both programssuggested staffing reductions were achievable, RealOpt provided a more detailed andcompelling analysis that staffing reductions of over 63%o could,be achieved. Thisrecofilmendation was ultimately tempered by stakeholders who remained uncertain aboutthis new response capability, but staffing reductions of 3A%o were achieved based onRealOpt analysis.

To understand the practical impact of this analysis, consider that the originalstaffing plan (at that time) called for 134 Pods to be deployed simultaneously.-Each pODwould operate continuously across three twelve-hour shifts, with each pOD staffed by 35personnel per shift. This required 4,690 persons per twelve-hour shift and 14,070personnel to staff all three shifts. Aside from the difficulty in recruiting and maintainingcurrent information for this number of volunteers, our plan also required that we providefour hours of pre-incident training to approximately 25%o of this volunteer pool(n-3,518), or T4,07a hours of training. Given the training capacity availabli toaccomplish this, it would have taken 48 iterations of -70 volunteers each spread over twoyears to meet this training goal.

By contrast, fficiencies afforded by the unfiltered RealOpt recommendation made for amorefeasible POD staffing enterprise while maintaining quality & ovailabitity of ierufce.

In January, 2009 r accepted the public Health Emergency preparednessCoordinator position with the State of Hawaii Department of Health.My primaryresponsibility was to oversee the State's preparedness and response to *y bioterroristthreat on behalf of Hawaii's 1.3 million residents distributed i"tor. 8 ma.jor islands.Planning for a full-scale mass dispensing exercise that had been begun the previousNovember had stalled due to personnel furnover. Assuming the role of "ExerciseCoordinator," I reconvened the exercise planning committee and worked with staff toincorporate data collection protocols for post-exercise analysis. Held at the University ofHawaii's Manoa campus in June, 2009,the "Ho'o pakele Mass Dispensing Exercise,,drew over 250 community volunteers to the Honolulu campus in the largest exercise ofits kind up to that time.

Having tealized the transformative power of RealOpt's analysis capability,Idirected the post-exercise analysis of time: motion data collected. As in my previousexperience, RealOpt yielded detailed analysis that led to a number of staff reductions andimprovements in POD design. Recommendations that arose from RealOpt analysis were

StaffingPlan

%o oforiginal

Staffpershift

Totalstaffrequired

Stafftobe pre-trained

# iterations required

@7sparticipants/iteration

Time tocompletetraining @,twoiterations/month

Orieinal r00% 4,690 14,070 3,518 47 2 yearsMitisated 70% 3,350 10,050 2.512 34 1 712 yearcRealOpt 36% 1,742 5,226 1,307 18 9 months

CDC Edelman AwardApil 6,2012Page 3

validated by review of time-lapse video taken throughout the exercise. A closecorrelation between what RealOpt analysis suggested and what was observed on thevideo led to more direct implementation of corrective actions this time around.

In October,2010 I moved to my current position as a Strategic National Stockpiletechnical advisor employed by the Centers for Disease Control. Posted in WashingtonD.C-, my primary responsibility is to assist the Health Emergency Preparedness andResponse Administration of the D.C. Department of Health develop and refine rapidmass dispensing capabilities on behalf of the District's 601,000 residents and,I.2milliondaytime population.

Shortly after arriving, I initiated a project to re-evaluate D.C.'s designated pODlocations' We applied RealOpt Regional software initially to determine the optimallocations for PODs based on population densities and surface routes. Next we overlaidlocations of government buildings available for use as PODs and sub-jurisdiction lines(Wards). A final list of 16 PODs was compiled through this process and validated instakeholder meetings with law enforcement and other supporting district agencies.Additionally, RealOpt analysis led to identification of two sites that *" ur"

"ontinuing to

evaluate for incorporation as "drive-thru" PODs, a novel delivery modality for theDistrict.

As a professional bioterrorism planner with substantial experience at the local, stateand federal levels of government I have great appreciation for the RealOpt SoftwareEnterprise. In addition to well-designed and intuitive user-interfaces, theloftware has thepower to deliver analysis that professional planners are quick to recognize as valuableinput. RealOpt has also evolved in a most-practical way to address the most commonly-encountered areas of operational uncertainty. These characteristics demonstratethatdevelopers have sought out and incorporated input from public health emergencypreparedness planners actively engaged in solving these national security challenges.

I hope my comments will provide useful insight into the practical benefits of theRealopt Software Enterprise. If I can provide additional information or clarificationsplease don't hesitate to call on me.

Very

fis,Wesley McDermott

Cc: Eva Lee, PhD

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY NAVY BUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY

2300 E STREET NW WASHINGTON DC 20372-5300

IN REPLY REFER TO

MEMORANDUM FOR MEMBERS OF THE FRANZ EDELMAN AWARD SELECTION COMMITTEE, SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, MASSACHUSEETS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139 SUBJECT: Letter of Support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s RealOpt Modeling and Simulation Tool. I am honored to submit this letter of support and endorsement for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s RealOpt Modeling and Simulation Tool. Navy Medicine has had the opportunity to utilize the technology in our Pandemic Planning and Exercise Program. Some Navy Medical sites have used it for optimizing seasonal flu vaccination, while at other sites, the system has been used to evaluate and determine the operations bottleneck for medical countermeasure distribution planning. We see it as a critical and valuable tool that saves time, man-hours, and money in optimizing our Points of Distribution (POD) functions and the layout of each POD. We have no doubt it will save lives in real-world situations when time will translate to lives saved or lost. As Director of Medical Preparedness Policy on the White House National Security Staff from 2007-2009, I had the opportunity to work directly with Dr. Eva Lee and gain understanding of the development and true value the RealOpt system brings to our nation in preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. Biological incidents that require rapid distribution of medical countermeasures represent complex, complicated problems. Solutions require collaboration across critical sectors including public health, emergency services, and communications. RealOpt provides decision makers across those sectors with the ability to make key decisions in time to have impact and save lives. The RealOpt Modeling and Simulation Tool represents the current leading edge and the future for medical informatics and systems engineering applied to the public health space in ways that the current threats to our nation demand. I commend the CDC and Dr. Lee’s team at Georgia Tech for its development and for making it available to our nation as part of our biodefense. I hope your selection committee can reward it with the recognition it deserves. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any further questions at 202-762-3462.

CAPT Duane Caneva, MD, MSc. Director, Emergency Preparedness

The White House National Security Council's function has been to advise and assist the President on national security and foreign policies. The Council also serves as the President's principal arm for coordinating these policies among various government agencies.