Dr. Paul Friedrichs recently joined Rand as Senior Biopreparedness Fellow and is also a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University. Previously, he served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and inaugural Director of The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy.

Paul also served as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council.  Before moving to the White House, 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 coordinated military medical support across the Department. 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.

He was awarded the Bronze Star and is a Chevalier of the French Ordre National du Mérite. Paul’s father served in the US Navy at the end of World War II and his mother fought in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He is married to Dr. Rita Friedrichs, a former Army physician, and they are the proud parents of two children, one of whom is a Marine.