Gerald Parker, D.V.M., Ph.D., M.S. is the principal deputy assistant secretary to the assistant secretary for preparedness and response. Since March 2003, he has been detailed to the Department of Homeland Security. During his career, he has held a variety of positions, including assistant deputy for research and development and research director for the Medical Chemical and Biological Defense Research Program at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. In this role, he led joint service and interagency programs responsible for developing research investment strategies and sustaining unique capabilities to develop a broad range of medical countermeasures. He is a former commander and deputy commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the lead DoD medical research laboratory for medical biological defense. In these positions, he directed the technology based research and development of vaccines, diagnostics, and drugs, along with the development of medical defense strategies and the training of health care providers against biological warfare agents and highly infectious organisms requiring special containment. Dr. Parker graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S in veterinary medicine and a degree of doctor of veterinary medicine. He holds a doctorate in physiology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and an M.S. degree in resourcing the national strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.