Mr. Gabriel is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Incident Command and Control within the Office of the Assistant Secretary Preparedness and Response (ASPR). In this role, he serves as principal advisor to the ASPR on all matters pertaining to the department’s incident command and control structure to augment the Department’s public health emergency preparedness and response and recovery activities, programs, and policies. Mr. Gabriel provides strategic oversight to ASPR with an emphasis on enhancing ASPR’s strategies, policies, plans, and requirements relating to public health and medical emergencies, advancing security and intelligence efforts, and ensuring emergency response operation requirements including information management, and operational data analysis are met. Mr. Gabriel also oversees the leadership team managing the Department’s Continuity of Operations Program (COOP), Critical Infrastructure Program (CIP), and the HHS Secretary’s Operations Center (SOC) which runs 24/7/365.
Prior to this current new role, Mr. Gabriel served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in ASPR. Prior to joining ASPR, he served as Director, Global Crisis Management and Business Continuity, for The Walt Disney Company. He was responsible for the development and implementation of global policy, planning, training and exercises to manage crisis, provided leadership and direction to east and west coast medical and emergency medical operations, the Walt Disney Studio’s fire department and provided crisis support with global business units. During Crisis incidents his department managed response operations, communications methodology and disaster and business recovery. Preceding this private sector position, Mr. Gabriel held positions in New York City. He was a twenty-six year Paramedic veteran of New York City Fire Department’s (FDNY) Emergency Medical Service (EMS) retiring as an Assistant Chief/Division Commander.
He was assigned to New York City Office of Emergency Management (NYC*OEM) as Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Preparedness and was responsible for all preparedness and planning related strategy, projects and initiatives until he retired from NYC Government. Mr. Gabriel has served on several National Academy of Sciences – Institute of Medicine (NAS-IOM) committees including Chair of the Standing Committee for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Health Threats Resilience, and IOM Committee on Crisis Standards of Care and the Disaster Resource Guide Editorial Board. He currently serves on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Advisory Council (NAC). Addition-ally he served on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) – Board of Scientific Counselors for the Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response.
Mr. Gabriel lectured to international leaders at General George C. Marshall School of International Studies Program on Terrorism and Security Studies presenting on methodologies for crisis planning and preparedness. He continues to lecture nationally and internationally on cri-sis management, business continuity, emergency management, policy strategy, planning and preparedness, WMD, terrorism and emergency medical topics. He has published articles on related subjects and still actively participates on a number of national terrorism, all hazards preparedness and health related committees.
Mr. Gabriel is credentialed, through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) as a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM), the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) as a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) and by the State of New York as a Paramedic (AEMT-P). Most recently, Mr. Gabriel was honored by the American Academy of Disaster Medicine with its Distinguished Service Award. Mr. Gabriel was recognized for his outstanding leadership and ongoing efforts to ensure the necessary resources are promptly made available to health professionals when disasters strike. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree (BA) from the College of New Rochelle and a Master of Public Administration Degree (MPA) from Rutgers University.