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Mr. Erik Gaull CEM

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Bio

Biography of Erik S. Gaull, CEM®, CISSP®, CPP®, CBCP®, PMP®, MEP

 

Erik Gaull is a technology expert and consultant specializing in public safety, emergency management, counterterrorism/homeland security, organizational resilience, and enterprise risk management. He has led and provided subject matter expertise on projects for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Election Commission, the World Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, U.S. Navy, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and numerous local governments, educational, and private sector clients in the United States, Europe, Canada, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Erik holds an active Top Secret security clearance (SCI-eligible) and five premier peer-conferred professional designations –Certified Information Systems Security Professional®, Certified Emergency Manager®, Certified Protection Professional®, Certified Business Continuity Professional®, and Project Management Professional®. He is also a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Additionally, Erik has earned FEMA’s Master Exercise Practitioner, Master Continuity Practitioner, Advanced Professional Series, and Professional Development Series recognitions. He is a graduate of the Emergency Management Institute’s National Emergency Management Advanced and Executive Academies. Erik is a seasoned law enforcement officer, Nationally Registered Paramedic, Pro Board-certified Fire Officer III and Fire Instructor III, and hazardous materials technician. He serves on the DHS Emergency Services Sector Coordinating Council, as President of Region III of the International Association of Emergency Managers, and as the Sector Chief for Emergency Services Sector of InfraGard National Capital Region. He served for nine years on the DHS Science and Technology Directorate’s First Responder Resource Group and on the ASIS Standards Technical Committee that revised the 2008 edition of the ANSI/ASIS Chief Security Officer (CSO) Organizational Standard.

 

From 2000 to 2002, Erik was the Director of the Operational Improvements Division of the Office of Mayor Anthony A. Williams in Washington, D.C. On September 11, 2001, he helped manage the District’s Emergency Operations Center. In the months following, he developed the District’s “First Hour of Action Plan for Senior Officials” and assisted with the development of numerous other plans, policies, procedures, and exercises. Additionally, Erik was a key liaison for the Mayor and City Administrator in the intergovernmental response to the Anthrax attacks of 2001. He was appointed by Mayor Williams to the Mayor’s Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program Advisory Committee in 2002 and the Mayor’s Emergency Medical Services Advisory Committee in 2001. Prior to joining the Williams Administration, Erik spent nearly eight years at TriData Corporation, a management consulting firm for public-sector emergency services. He was the Director of Local Government Studies when he left the firm.

 

Erik has substantive experience in all three levels of government – at City Hall in both Washington, D.C. and New York City; in the New Mexico State Department of Health; and in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has had direct service delivery roles as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, paramedic, and park ranger in Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C.

 

Erik earned an MBA and a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University and a baccalaureate in Urban Studies from Columbia University. In addition, he has completed a Certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University and the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Erik is also a graduate of the FBI Citizens’ Academy and the DEA Citizens’ Academy. He is a FLETC-certified Active Shooter Threat Instructor, an Adjunct Instructor at the D.C. Metropolitan Police Academy, a Pro Board-certified Fire Service Instructor III, and a PADI-certified Open Water SCUBA Instructor. He was an instructor at the National Fire Academy for 20 years and an adjunct faculty member in the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and at the George Washington University Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine.

 

Erik is the most senior reserve officer in the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and a Life Member (and the longest-serving responder) in the Cabin John Park Volunteer Fire Department in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he is currently a Firefighter/Paramedic III. In 2017, Erik received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama for his public safety volunteerism. Erik and his family live in Cabin John, Maryland.