Nick Lobel-Weiss is The Principal Expert for Global Health Security within the Pan Africa Department at The United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (UK FCDO). Nick was previously Director of The UK’s Emergency Medical Team (UK EMT) a rapid medical response capability that delivers expert frontline health care and specialist advice globally.
Before joining FCDO (previously the Department of International Development-DFID), Nick was the Manager for Training and Exercising for NHS England. As the Deputy Regional Incident Manager on NHS England’s Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response Team, Nick coordinated London’s health and medical response to the Westminster Bridge Attack, the NHS Cyber Attack, the London Bridge Attacks, the Grenfell Tower Fire and other incidents impacting London.
During his tenure at NHS England, Nick has also worked closely with London Resilience Group – part of The London Resilience Partnership, a consortium of over 170 organizations with responsibility of keeping London prepared for emergencies.
Nick founded Global ER in 2010 following the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Prior to his career in Emergency Management, Nick was a production manager for over 20 productions including Beauty and The Beast, The Who’s Tommy, Annie, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Riverdance and The Lion King.
Nick’s life changed dramatically in the wake of 9/11. From the morning of September 12th, he worked as part of the medical response efforts at the World Trade Center site in cooperation with city, state, and federal agencies.
In 2004, Nick began working as an emergency medical technician as part of the FDNY 911 Emergency Medical Services System eventually overseeing a division of EMS and corporate partnerships for St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital (Now Mount Sinai Medical Center).
In 2005, Nick served as part of New York City’s response to Hurricane Katrina. His team dispatched over 400 ambulances daily on missions throughout Louisiana and southern Mississippi.
In response to the 2005 Pakistan Earthquake, Nick organized an emergency medical team of doctors and paramedics to respond. Obtaining clearance and direction from The World Health Organization, Nick coordinated the personnel, medications, equipment and supplies to outfit the team which deployed to remote regions of Kashmir where help had not arrived. The group treated over 2,000 patients in less than two weeks and was profiled on CBS 60 Minutes.
With the Pakistan crisis far from over, Nick and his colleagues identified critical need for emergency shelter. Nick raised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 in in-kind commitments within three months. This included collaboration with the Weyerhaeuser Company which, in response to his request, fabricated winterized shelters for homeless quake victims. He convinced United Parcel Service to provide over $100,000 in shipping costs and worked with The United Nations, the US Government and the Pakistani Military to ensure that the shelters reached those in need.
Nick’s emergency medical team returned to Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province in early 2006, established a fully functional field hospital with 24 hour emergency care. The operation interacted with 550 patients per day while managing distribution of the shelters.
In 2008, Nick was tapped to be the Director of Health and Medical for The New York City Office of Emergency Management (now NYC Emergency Management). Reporting to the Deputy Commissioner, Nick led a team of Health and Medical specialists to plan and prepare NYC for disasters and citywide emergencies. When emergencies arose, Nick worked with partners to coordinate the responses. During his tenure at OEM, Nick helped to develop the NYC Healthcare Facility Evacuation Plan (implemented successfully during Hurricane Sandy). He managed other health emergencies including the Flight 1549 Aviation incident (on the Hudson River) and the H1N1 influenza outbreak.
In January, 2010, Nick relocated to Port-au-Prince, Haiti where worked with the Ministry of Health to manage the city’s largest hospital which was severely damaged in the earthquake. Nick was pivotal in securing over $4M in grant funding grant from The American Red Cross to compensate hundreds of local hospital staff. Nick remained and resided in Haiti for over a year and continued to return thereafter to support recovery efforts.
In 2012, Nick was recalled to OEM to support New York City’s response to Hurricane Sandy. Nick helped to manage one of the City’s largest Special Medical Needs Shelters, served as a section chief in New York’s Emergency Operations Center and led teams to distribute medication, equipment and supplies in the impacted areas. For his efforts, The NYC Department of Health presented him with its Exemplary Responder Award.
In 2014, Nick served as the Coordinator of Ebola Response for AmeriCares. Nick coordinated the supply of three 100-bed Ebola Treatment Units funded by the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and helped to recruit, train and deploy emergency medical teams to staff the Ebola Treatment Unit in Buchanan, Liberia.
He was later deployed to Northern Liberia by the International Rescue Committee where he led a local and international medical team to ensure that the local health system was resilient against not only Ebola, but future health emergencies.
Nick holds a B.A. from Oberlin College. He currently resides in London with his wife, Danielle and two children, both of whom test Nick’s disaster management skills regularly.