Jeffrey D. Freeman, phd, mph
Executive Director | Special Assistant to the President
Dr. Jeffrey D. Freeman serves as the Executive Director of the National Institute for Defense Health Cooperation (NIDHC) and Director of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH) at the Uniformed Services University (USU). In this role, he leads a national research and education program advancing disaster medicine and public health preparedness across the federal government and a nationwide ecosystem of leading medical and public health institutions.
Prior to joining USU, Dr. Freeman held leadership roles at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he established programs focused on health security, disaster response, and national preparedness. Earlier in his career, he supported emergency response and humanitarian health initiatives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Throughout his career, Dr. Freeman has led multidisciplinary teams supporting responses to global health emergencies including COVID-19, Mpox, and Ebola, as well as complex humanitarian crises and disasters.
Dr. Freeman holds a Bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University, a Master of Public Health in Global Health and Infectious Diseases from Emory University, and a PhD in Environmental Health and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He also serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Military and Emergency Medicine at USU.
Elizabeth A. erickson, colonel, usaf, mc
Principal Deputy Director, NIDHC
Col (Dr.) Elizabeth Erickson is the Deputy Director of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences' (USU) National Institute for Defense Health Cooperation (NIDHC). In this capacity, she leads a multidisciplinary team providing thought leadership and operational support for the Department of War's Global Health Engagement (GHE) Enterprise. Her responsibilities include oversight of training and education programs, delivering operational support to the combatant commands, advancing research and scholarship, and knowledge management. Additionally, she serves as an Assistant Professor in the USU Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics.
Col Erickson received her commission through the Health Professionals Scholarship Program in 1999. She attended the University of Minnesota Medical School and Family Medicine residency training at David Grant Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, California, serving as Chief Resident 2005-2006. As a Family Physician, she had overseas assignments in Turkey and Germany, and served as Senior Medical Officer and Chief of Women's Affairs on Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul, Afghanistan in 2009-2010. She achieved the International Health Specialist Special Experience Identifier in 2011 and has planned, coordinated, and executed Global Health Engagement programs and activities at the Pacific Air Forces Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and U.S. European Command. She also completed residency training in General Preventative Medicine, earning a Master of Public Health degree with a Global Health concentration in 2018. Prior to her current position, Col Erickson served as the Chief of the Global Health Engagement Branch and the International Health Specialist Program at the Air Force Medical Agency, and was deployed in 2024 as the Security Assistance Group - Ukraine (SAG-U) Surgeon as well as the first Medical Advisor of NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU).