Dr. Friedrichs is an adjunct professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland. Prior to this role, he served as the deputy assistant to the President and as the inaugural director of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. In that role, Dr. Friedrichs advised the President and coordinated US government efforts to enhance the United States and its partners’ abilities to prepare for and respond to pandemics and other biologic events.
He previously served as special assistant to the President and senior director for global health security and biodefense at the White House National Security Council, where he coordinated US policy to detect, prevent, prepare for, and respond to infectious diseases and biological threats.
Prior to that, Dr. Friedrichs served as the joint staff surgeon at the Pentagon, where he provided medical advice to the joint chiefs of staff chair on Department of Defense (DoD) operations and was the medical advisor to the DoD COVID-19 Task Force. He also was the US representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services.
In addition to caring for patients in combat, Antarctica, and other austere locations, Dr. Friedrichs has led DoD's global medical evacuation system and assisted in multiple major domestic and international responses to natural disasters and biological outbreaks, as well as global health diplomacy efforts. As chair of the Military Health System’s Joint Task Force on High Reliability Organizations, he oversaw development of a roadmap to continuously improve military healthcare.
Dr. Friedrichs received his commission at Tulane University through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1986, his doctor of medicine degree from the Uniformed Services University in 1990, and was a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College where he received a master’s degree in strategic security studies. He has commanded multiple medical units and led joint and interagency teams which earned numerous awards. He was presented the Bronze Star and an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Nebraska and has been named a Chevalier in the French Ordre National du Merite.
