Advisory Board Spotlight: Interview with Caroline Agarabi, Ph.D.

Caroline Agarabi, Ph.D., discussed her professional journey into domestic preparedness with Domestic Preparedness Journal’s Nicolette Casey. Dr. Agarabi is a medicinal chemist who now regulates medical countermeasures in response to CBRN incidents. In this interview, she shares her passion about domestic preparedness and the Journal and her intrigue with new developments in crisis communications.

Nicolette: So happy we get to talk this morning. I really am.

Caroline: Me, too! Thank you so much for rescheduling. I know it was, you know, coordinating schedules and stuff, and time zone, so thank you for making it work. I really appreciate it. Yeah.

Nicolette: I appreciate you taking the time to sit with me and just chat a little bit about domestic preparedness. So cheers to our first cup of coffee, or maybe you’re second or third. I’m not sure, but I’m right behind you.

So, how are you doing this morning?

Caroline: I’m doing great. I have to say, I really like the series that you’re doing on the board members because it’s such a wealth of talent and you know, breadth of experience. It’s a lot of different people, and I’m, you know, I get to see the people I see in my work sphere, but it’s so nice to have that zoom-out perspective and to see, you know, the expertise that the whole board brings to bear. So I really like the spotlights you’re doing. And I think it’s a really nice way to showcase, you know, what’s going on at the Domestic Preparedness Journal.

Nicolette: Absolutely. It’s one of those things that we looked at. And it’s like, wow, look at who we have backing this journal. Look at who we have backing this publication. We need to push it to the forefront because we’re really proud of who we have working with us.

You know, the articles that are written, are written by people with lots of experience and lots of knowledge and a whole lot of heart, you know, within this field. So, people like you. So, I’m really excited to get into this, because just as you are, you know, excited and proud to be a part of the board, our subscribers, our listeners, our readers, are excited to hear what you have to say about it, as well.

Caroline: Well, thank you. Yeah.

Nicolette: Let’s jump right in. So what inspired you to join the Domestic Preparedness board?

Caroline: Yeah. Well, for a long time I was a reader of the Journal, and I met Cathy at a conference for the International Fire Chiefs Association and hazardous materials, and I went up to her, and I was really excited to meet her because I really enjoyed reading the Journal. And I just wanted to know more about the Journal and who was behind it and if there were ways I could get involved. And I knew from my scientific background that sometimes a good way to get involved in a new sphere is to offer to read manuscripts.

And so I expressed my interest in that, and Cathy called me a few months later and said, “Hey, do you want to help?” And I said I would love to. And then she offered me a job on the board, or a position on the board, and I gratefully accepted. So I was so happy about that. But essentially I started as a reader who just found that the Domestic Preparedness Journal was a really great resource for someone coming from another field into the domestic preparedness space. And then my interest grew from there.

Nicolette: Wonderful. I didn’t know that’s how that worked with you and Cathy. That’s wonderful.

Caroline: Yeah.

Nicolette: Okay, excellent. Can you share a bit more about your background and how it ties into emergency preparedness?

Caroline: Sure. I don’t have a typical emergency preparedness background, and I think that the moral of the story is that, you know, it takes all kinds of people. It takes all sorts of people, and that, you know, I think the message I want to convey is that whatever your skill set is, it can come to bear to help people in the domestic preparedness space if you have a mind to do that. My background is I’m a medicinal chemist of natural products and a pharmaceutical scientist by training. I hold a PhD. In biomedical and pharmaceutical science. And I spent several years at the FDA regulating drugs, medical devices, tobacco products. And, being a person who’s curious, inquisitive, willing to take on stretch assignments, I ended up regulating medical countermeasures or medical drugs and devices intended for the response to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents.

Nicolette: Wow!

Caroline: Yeah, I did not expect, you know, to take that left turn at Albuquerque. I had no idea I would end up in the preparedness space. But I think what’s very attractive to me about it is that it is so multidisciplinary and that you do meet so many different people with so many different types of expertise. I like being a scientist, but I also like getting out of that bubble and hearing from first responders and hearing from people who are, you know, using these medicines, deploying them on the frontlines, etc. And so completing that circle really brings me a lot of fulfillment, to know that I’m not just pushing paper in an office, that I’m actually helping, you know, make sure that medicines that are needed get to the people that they need to get to, and the time they need to get to. So that’s how my background ended up letting me in the domestic preparedness space. I currently work at, as you can see, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response in the Department of Health and Human Services, and there I help develop capabilities and requirements that would be needed to respond to a civilian mass casualty event of a chem/bio/rad/nuke nature.

Nicolette: Wow! Important work! That sounds that sounds exciting. That sounds powerful. That sounds…wow! I’m sure you have a lot to write about. I’m sure you have a lot to write about for sure. Now, as far as your articles go, I’m assuming you’ve already contribute to Domestic Preparedness.

Caroline: I have not. You know, yeah. And so I do enjoy writing. But I will say that the majority of my support has come in the form of reviewing articles, and that’s in large part, because, you know, we have a press office, and things have to go through clearance, and it just takes a long time. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been thinking about potential articles or listening closely on the board member calls about your upcoming issues and your themes, and how I might be able to support and help in a timely way. But again, it’s the slowdown of like I don’t know how fast I can turn around written copy, get it cleared through my organization, and then to you guys on time.

Nicolette: Right. Oh, it would be amazing to have you contribute, because you bring such a beautiful energy, and you seem very excited about what you’re talking about, very knowledgeable, and fresh. You sound like you have a very fresh perspective on it. And I think that would really attract our listeners. So we definitely have to circle back and talk to Cathy about maybe, you know, the next year and what those topics are, because I feel like we’ve got to have you in there. We’ve got to have you. Next year we’ve got to have you in there.

Okay, so that leads me to my next question, which is, what do you see as the biggest challenges or opportunities that we have in preparedness right now?

Caroline: Yeah, yeah, challenges. It’s never just one thing. It seems like it’s, you know, we’re in an age of poly-crisis or multiple things going wrong at the same time. So you can’t just assume it’s a biological, infectious disease event. There’s also a hurricane or a large-scale power outage or some other, you know, a pipeline goes down or a bridge goes down. The Francis Scott Key Bridge is very close to where I live, etc. So I think the challenges include, you know, first of all, this is not a single-player sport. This is not a single event.

This is, how do you marshal the resources? How do you, you know, build your networks and your teams in different, you know, agencies inside of government, outside of government, at the state and local levels, tribal territorial levels, internationally? How do you build your coalitions quickly to respond to these multi-pronged events, which are very rarely, you know, as anticipated or as planned? So that adaptation to poly-crises – and having good people around you, I see as the challenge and also the opportunity, because I think, you know, there are so many people in the preparedness space who are dedicated and who care and want to help, and they don’t all look like someone who has a PhD in chemistry. They don’t all look like a law enforcement officer, but they look like a lot of different people. They include those people. They look like a lot of different people. They’re also, you know, I see a lot of young people in my neighborhood, teenagers who want to get involved in firefighting and their communities and helping in ways that they aren’t really sure of what that will lead to. But I see a lot of people willing to help, wanting to help, engaging those people before the poly-crises happen, activating them to, you know, mount a response. I think those are the opportunities and challenges that exist in the space.

Nicolette: Thank you. That’s very true.

Now, what would be one key takeaway you’d like to share with our readers about staying prepared?

Caroline: Wow! Okay, staying prepared, you know. I think it’s like fitness. You have to, you know, just a little bit every day, you know. Don’t go crazy, a little bit every day.

Prepare for Tuesday. You know I am a big believer in, like, do things that are going to be good for you anyway. Is it a good idea to, I don’t know, have a little extra water on hand? Sure, it’s always a good idea. It’s not, you know, ever going to be a negative thing.

It’s always a good idea to know who your neighbors are. Who would you call? Who can you help? Who might call you if they need some help? And I think just some simple steps, like, you know, going to the gym several times a week, or, you know, just preparing for Tuesday, as I mentioned, those small things that are good for your life anyway. Help people stay prepared. But also, you know, knowing what is going on in your community, knowing about your helpers in your community. Knowing, you know, do you have the number for the fire department other than 9-1-1, do you have, you know, a plan if those people are delayed? Do you have fire extinguishers in your house? Stuff like that I think is important, just good practice, but also helps people from getting burnt out or afraid or frozen. Don’t be frozen. There’s always a way to move forward. I’m a strong believer that there’s always another way forward, and so just find the way to move forward and find the people who are willing to move forward with you.

Nicolette: That’s a very good piece of advice.

Now, do you have any advice for someone new to the field, maybe new to your field, maybe new to the preparedness field in general?

Caroline: Yeah, I consider myself new. I never thought that I, you know, would have, that my professional, you know, experience would be of value in the preparedness field. But I saw this job opportunity, and I applied, and it’s turned out to be an amazing fit.

I would just say that the preparedness field is so –  for people who don’t like doing the same thing every day, there will always be something new or different for you to do in the preparedness space. And there’s job security. I mean, I wish for a peaceful and calm world, but I think that what can be guaranteed is that we are going to have to continue to, you know, respond to crises and to emergencies, and think about how to recover and how to, you know, support communities that have undergone, you know, severe tragedies. It does not just, you know, the response doesn’t end after a few months.

So, what I have been surprised by, and what I would share with anyone considering this field, or who haven’t considered this field before, that it is broad – there is a great need for people to help, and I think a lot of people have that helping heart. And they want to, you know, know how to do that. And just know that there are other good people out there, too, who want to do the same thing. You might disagree about how that gets done. But the sentiment is a positive one, and building on that is key and just staying interested, staying inquisitive, staying open, staying open to other people, new ideas and new experiences, and not being afraid to get your hands dirty.

Nicolette: Love that. Now what do you see is on the horizon in emergency preparedness. Is there anything else you want to leave us with before I let you go today?

Caroline: Yeah. Leaving with, okay. You know, there are a couple things. I do think that communication – I do not know how exactly, but I’ve been thinking a lot – I took this great class in communication, crisis communications. I am going to give a little plug to the teacher Dev Heilman, who runs the Institute of Crisis Management, and she runs a great crisis communications course. She would be a great person for an article. So maybe I’ll hit her up, yeah.

Nicolette: Yes, I am writing her name down.

Caroline: Yes, but the way we communicate during crises and after crises, restoring, you know, a sense of community or a sense of authenticity or credibility, I think, in communications, is really important. How people get their news today is very different from how people got their news in 2004, and so I imagine another 20 years, it will also change. But just finding a way to make those communications authentic, sincere. She would often say, Deb, no one cares what you have to say until they know that you care about them and their situation, and that is really true, and we have this ability to connect with anyone around the world in multiple, real-time Internet exchanges. And yet there is a feeling of being disconnected or unclear about, you know, who’s trustworthy and what messages are trustworthy. And so some sort of innovation in communication in the preparedness space, I think, is warranted. I do not know how that would happen. I do not know what that looks like.

But I will say, after taking this class on crisis communications, I have a great respect, and I want to know more about how the communications professionals do their job because they, you know, it can all – all the best laid plans, all the best logistical support can fall by the wayside if people do not know the resources are there, if people don’t know where to pick up the water when they are on a boil advisory for a week after a hurricane. You know, so there, there is going to be something with communication. I’m also really interested at this intersection of cyber signaling and maybe I’ll save that for another time, but some intersection between, you know, cyber signaling or radio frequency, or some sort of at-a-distance activation of chemistry, because that is my area of interest. That is something I also think we should be, looking into it more. I think, I do not know exactly what that would look like, but I think we have seen some events earlier this year, where we saw cell phones activated for military defense purposes. And I think that that’s a very powerful thing as well, the fact that we all carry around cell phones. We all have smart devices all around us. You think about the opportunities present in that. And yeah, it makes me wonder, I would like to know more about that. That is something I, and perhaps the preparedness space as well, you know – it could be new and different for the preparedness space to consider as well.

Nicolette: No, you are absolutely right. We will have to talk about that at a later time. Maybe that’s what we ask of you for, you know, next year. I mean, it would be amazing to have you contribute, and I’m sure not the only one that thinks that. So, we’ll have to circle back.

But I have really appreciated the conversation.

Caroline: Me, too! Thank you so much, Nicolette.

Nicolette: Thank you so much, Caroline. It has been a pleasure talking to you, and I hope we can do this again soon.

Caroline: Great talking to you, too. Yes, absolutely.