Paul Friedrichs

Dr. Paul Friedrichs is an adjunct professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University. Prior to this role, he served as the deputy assistant to the president and inaugural director of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, where he advised the president and coordinated U.S. government efforts to enhance the United States and its partners’ ability to detect, prevent, prepare for, and respond to pandemics and other biological events. Paul previously served as senior director for global health security and biodefense at the National Security Council. Prior to that, he served as the joint staff surgeon at the Pentagon, where he provided medical advice to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was 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 the Department of Defense's global medical evacuation system and assisted in multiple major domestic and international responses to natural disasters and biological outbreaks, as well as global health diplomacy efforts. He received his undergraduate degree from Tulane University, his MD from the Uniformed Services University, and was a distinguished graduate of the National War College, where he received a master’s degree in strategic security studies. He was awarded the Bronze Star and an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Nebraska and has been named a chevalier in the French Ordre National du Mérite.