Office of Emergency Operations

 

Office Contact

Mark R. Russo, Director, Office of Emergency Operations

 

Major Functions

• Serves as the agency focal point for emergency preparedness and response operating the 24-hour, 7-day-a-week emergency response system.
• Provides support and assistance to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offices in managing the agency's response to emergency incidents and situations involving FDA regulated products and disasters.
• Assists in the development and coordination of the agency's emergency preparedness and response activities.
• In direct coordination with individual headquarters and field emergency coordination units, serves as the agency focal point for the review and analysis of preliminary information about threats and hazards, and assists in the early recognition of emergencies, outbreaks, natural disasters, and terrorism or other criminal acts
• Coordinates FDA emergency activities with other Federal agencies, State, local and foreign government officials and industry associations.
• Identifies and advocates emergency training needs for FDA personnel and participates in the design, implementation, and presentation of the training programs.
• Provides guidance to agency emergency response staff in the use of the Incident Command System to manage single or multi-agency response activities.
• Represents the agency at interagency, intra-agency, State, local and foreign government and industry association meetings and conferences on emergency preparedness and response.
• Manages the National Consumer Complaint System which monitors reports of problems with FDA-regulated products for potential emergencies.
• Participates in daily National Biosurveillance Integration Center conference calls sponsored by Department of Homeland Security to provide a secure forum for interagency information sharing for early recognition of biological events of national concern, both natural and man-made, to make a timely response possible. 
• Oversees and tests the agency's ability to communicate through the Government Electronic Telecommunications Service (GETS) which provides global telecommunications (secure voice, facsimile and data communications) capability for organizations that perform national security and emergency preparedness functions.
• Responsible for staffing the operation of FDA’s Emergency Operations Center when activated.