Deployment Preparedness SUBCOMMITTEE
Chair: LCDR Patrick Sears
Co-Chair: LCDR Jason Caballero
Co-Chair: LCDR Adelaida (Adi) Rosario*
Co-Chair: LCDR Nicholas Buhr*
* indicates non-voting member
Standard Operating Procedure [PDF]
Purpose
The Deployment Preparedness Subcommittee has an overarching goal to support the SciPAC on issues related to becoming prepared for deployment and maintain basic readiness. The subcommittee will strive to enhance efforts to assist Scientist Officers with obtaining and maintaining their basic readiness and optimize the preparedness of Scientists to serve during public health emergencies. There are currently five teams on the Deployment Preparedness Subcommittee that provide a variety of deployment preparedness, readiness, and response-related initiatives and resources.
Teams
Administrative Team
Team members are responsible for maintaining the roster of current Deployment Preparedness SC members, taking and distributing minutes from the Deployment Preparedness SC meeting, coordinating revisions to the Deployment Preparedness SC SOP, and drafting and submitting the letter of appreciation for SC members to the SC Co-Chairs.
Team members collaborate with Co-Lead(s) to complete administration tasks, including one team member serving as the Website Liaison and updating SciPAC SOP.
Deployment Narratives Team
Team members collect narratives from officers regarding their recent response and deployment activities. The narratives are published on various platforms including the SciPAC website and SciPAC Newsletter.
To submit a response narrative, feel free to use the easy, fillable form. Once you have completed your form or have drafted your response narrative, please send it, along with any optional media attachments that you would like to accompany your narrative (e.g., your portrait, photos from your deployment, etc.) to adelaida.rosario@hhs.gov.
CPO Fitness Challenge Team
This team will offer recognition of Scientist officers who improve their fitness levels to Outstanding or Maximum (per APFT level scoring) by the CPO with a letter of appreciation for achieving the Outstanding level and a Letter of Appreciation and a CPO coin for achieving the Maximum level. Team members will develop criteria, evaluate candidates, create letters of appreciation, coordinate with the CPO for the distribution of coins, and coordinate REP! talk.
Response Preparedness Team
Team members hold lectures/presentations on response preparedness and topics related to response education to Scientist officers through various platforms which may include teleconferences after monthly SciPAC conference calls, stand-alone teleconferences, and regional or national Scientist conferences such as during Category Day.
Particular focus will be on the following areas:
- CLAS standards
- RDB Deployment Policies
- Responder of the Year Interview – 1st quarter
- Perspectives from a Ready Reserve Officer
- Using Spanish During a Deployment
- Go bags
- Eating during deployments – 3rd quarter
- Mental health – Corps Care – Cultural awareness
Team members collaborate with other Subcommittees, to include Career Development, to identify and publish deployment relevant trainings on a periodic basis.
Readiness Assistance Team
This team will answer or identify a contact to answer questions from the PAC on deployment and readiness issues. Members will also identify communications (emails) related to deployment, trainings, and readiness from Commissioned Corps that could be beneficial to the PAC membership. These emails will be emphasized during PAC meetings.
Skillset Team
This team helps Scientist Officers identify how their unique skillset can translate to effective employers through resources and a support network. The knowledge gathered by the team can support RDB in identifying Scientist Officers suited for key deployment roles.
Buddy System Team
Team members will match Scientist Officers with deployment experience with Scientist Officers who possess little or no deployment experience. After matching, the mentor will provide the mentee with insight on how to best prepare for deployment (e.g., packing, family readiness plan, will/POA legal documents, etc.) and answer any pre-deployment questions the mentee might have. Conversation between the Officers can continue as needed following the initial conversation or deployment.
