About the director

Dr. Paul Friedrichs currently serves as Deputy Assistant to the President and as the inaugural Director of The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. In this role, Dr. Friedrichs coordinates U.S. government efforts to enhance the United States and its partners’ ability to prepare for and respond to pandemics and other biological events. Paul previously served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the White House National Security Council, where he coordinated U.S. policy to detect, prevent, prepare for, and respond to, infectious diseases and biological threats. 

Dr. Friedrichs concluded a 37-year military career by serving as the Joint Staff Surgeon at the Pentagon, where he provided medical advice to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Department of Defense (DOD) operations and served as the medical advisor to the DOD COVID-19 Task Force. He was also the U.S. representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services. In addition to caring for patients in combat, Antarctica and other austere locations, he has led DOD’s global medical evacuation system and assisted in multiple major domestic and international responses to natural disasters and biological outbreaks, as well as multiple global health engagements. As Chair of the Military Health System’s Joint Task Force on High Reliability Organizations, Dr. Friedrichs oversaw development of a roadmap to continuously improve care for more than 9 million service members, retirees and their dependents.

Dr. Friedrichs received his commission at Tulane University through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1986 and his Doctor of Medicine degree (M.D.) from the Uniformed Services University in 1990. He was a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College, where he received a Master’s Degree in Strategic Security Studies and also received an honorary Doctorate in Science from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He has commanded multiple medical units, served as an Assistant Professor of Surgery and led joint and interagency teams which earned numerous awards. He has been awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star and has been named a Chevalier in the French Ordre National du Mérite.