Overview

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) aims to ensure the nation’s health security by preparing for, responding to, and recovering from public health emergencies. ASPR plays a leading role in coordinating efforts to strengthen the nation’s resilience against health threats.

ASPR’s status within HHS was elevated in 2022 when it became an operating division, but it has been active in biosecurity long before then. Today, ASPR’s seven program centers work together to establish a robust strategy to address biological threats—including preparedness, response, funding advanced research, coordinating responses, and maintaining the US Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).

Background on ASPR

• Government context: ASPR is one of 13 operating divisions in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), one of the 15 executive departments in the US government. (March 2025 update: HHS announced a major departmental restructuring that transferred ASPR to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• Mission: To “assist the country in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from public health emergencies and disasters.” 
• Main activities: ASPR leads efforts in bioterrorism preparedness, pandemic response, and disaster recovery through the development, stockpiling, and distribution of medical countermeasures; sending clinical response teams to places in times of crisis; coordinating responses to health threats; and establishing emergency preparedness programs. ASPR oversees the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and provides funding for high-risk / high-reward technologies through BARDA.
• Budget: $3.8 BN in FY24, making up a little over 1% of HHS’s total budgetary resources of $3.02TN.
• Staff: ~2,000 
• Brief history: ASPR’s origins trace back to 1955, evolving through various organizational forms. In 2002, it became the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness, focusing on bioterrorism, chemical, and nuclear threats. In 2006, the US Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) created the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (or ASPR). In 2022, due to its expanded role in managing responses to crises like COVID-19, the office was elevated to an operating division of HHS and renamed the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response—keeping the acronym ASPR. In March 2025, HHS announced a major departmental restructuring that transferred ASPR to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Organizational structure 

ASPR is led by the Assistant Secretary for Strategic Preparedness and Response (also referred to with the acronym ASPR), who is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Immediate Office of the ASPR (ASPR/IO) oversees seven other program centers, which together help the agency fulfill its mission.

ASPR’s role in the interagency

Given the broad mission of HHS to “enhance the health and well-being of all Americans,” there are many offices and programs that contribute to biosecurity-related efforts. ASPR’s scope frequently overlaps with other HHS offices, such as partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on rapid response to infectious disease outbreaks and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on developing novel tests and medicines for infectious diseases. 

But compared with the other HHS divisions, ASPR focuses specifically on health-related emergencies and disasters. ASPR’s role in the interagency typically involves coordination in times of crisis, developing or improving policies in preparation for crises, and assistance to fill capacity gaps in state and local governments responding to crises. Although ASPR’s efforts can include collaborating with international partners, the bulk of its programming efforts are domestic.

The Office of Strategy, Policy, and Requirements (SPR) within the ASPR IO coordinates with the interagency on ASPR strategy and policy, including executive orders and the National Biodefense Strategy. 

• SPR is structured into three divisions: 
  • Strategy Division: Sets ASPR’s overall strategic direction.
  • Policy Division: Helps implement ASPR’s strategic goals into policy, focusing on domestic preparedness and response.
  • Requirements Division: Sets the technical requirements for the SNS, PHEMCE, and BARDA. 
• Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE): The PHEMCE is an interagency body that works to inform medical countermeasure strategy, including reviewing and recommending countermeasures for ASPR to develop, acquire, and stockpile. SPR manages PHEMCE day-to-day, including setting agenda, running meetings, and setting requirements. PHEMCE advises the Secretary of HHS, and final decisions on the SNS are retained by ASPR’s SPR office.
• Potential Pandemic Pathogens Care and Oversight (P3CO): SPR leads the HHS biosafety and biosecurity coordinating council that sets biosecurity policies across the department. SPR runs the P3CO Review Group and makes recommendations on P3CO governance, which is implemented by HHS’ National Institutes of Health (NIH) with SPR providing biosafety policy oversight. 

Biosecurity & pandemic preparedness in ASPR 

ASPR’s predecessor—the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness—was formed after the 2001 anthrax attacks, which heightened the public’s awareness and concern for bioweapons. Five years later, Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the risk of local public health failure when faced with large-scale disaster, leading to the passage of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) and the formation of ASPR.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic again demonstrated the potential impact of widespread health threats, resulting in ASPR’s elevation to an operating division of HHS. These milestones in ASPR’s history demonstrate how biosecurity has been core to its formation, informing its mission and ongoing efforts. ASPR has a primarily civilian focus, whereas some similar stockpiling and emergency response capabilities are housed in DOD and focused on the military.

Here’s an overview of ASPR’s seven program offices, including some biosecurity efforts (non-exhaustive): 

ASPR program offices

1. Center for Administration: provides administrative support to maintain ASPR’s day-to-day operations, including human resources, budget and finance, acquisitions management (including policy and operational contracting), grants management, information technology, facilities, and acting as US Public Health Service (USPHS) liaison.
2. Center for Preparedness: responsible for all aspects of preparation for events such as disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and intentional attacks with chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapons. This work is closely coordinated with ASPR’s Office of Response and other related HHS components, such as CDC’s Office of Readiness and Response, as well as other US government departments and agencies and international allies and partners.
   1. Health Care Readiness Programs: provide funding and partnerships with states, territories, and some metropolitan areas to improve the ability of these communities to respond to public health emergencies.
      1. Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP): provides funding and cooperative agreements to improve the ability of hospitals, emergency medical service providers, emergency management agencies, and public health agencies to respond to public health emergencies. 
      2. Regional Disaster Health Response System (RDHRS): establishes regional partnerships to improve medical capacity and coordination at a regional level.
      3. National Special Pathogen System (NSPS): supports the preparedness and response needs of hospitals, health systems, and health care providers related to treating patients with special pathogens through education and training, regional coordination, and surge activity funding. This includes supporting and funding Regional Ebola and Other Special Pathogen Treatment Centers (RESPTCs) with enhanced capability to care for patients with highly infectious diseases.
      4. Workforce Capacity and Capability: enhances health care workforce preparedness through knowledge sharing, training, and establishing best practices.
3. Center for Response: coordinates public health and healthcare response systems and activities with relevant federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and international communities. It also provides oversight and guidance to the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) and supports localized management of the federal public health and medical response through the Federal Health Coordinating Official. In addition, the Center for Response serves as an important liaison function to other agencies engaged in federal response activities.
   1. Regional Emergency Coordinators (RECs): maintains representatives across ten regions with relationships with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial communities to conduct planning for effective public health emergency response. 
4. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA): BARDA provides an integrated, systematic approach to the development of vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies such as chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) accidents, incidents and attacks; pandemic influenza (PI); and emerging infectious diseases (EID).
   1. BARDA Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe): fosters early-stage companies developing high-risk, high-reward technologies addressing biosecurity through venture funding, an accelerator network, and prizes.
   2. Project BioShield: provides funding for advanced research, clinical development, manufacturing, and procurement of medical countermeasures. 
5. Center for Industrial Base Management & Supply Chain: aims to build a diverse, agile public health supply chain and sustain long-term US manufacturing capabilities by investing in medical product Industrial Base Expansion (IBx) capacities that can enable ASPR to respond to future public health emergencies.
   1. IBx Connect: coordinates manufacturing and supply chain improvement efforts related to medical supplies needed in a health emergency, including solutions for advanced manufacturing, PPE manufacturing, supply chain optimization, as well as testing and diagnostic devices and components. 
6. Center for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS): SNS, whose personnel are mostly based in Atlanta, is part of the federal medical response infrastructure and can supplement medical countermeasures needed by states, tribal nations, territories and the largest metropolitan areas during public health emergencies. The supplies, medicines, and devices for lifesaving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term, stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of these materials may not be available or sufficient.
7. HHS Coordination Operations and Response Element (H-CORE): H-CORE is a permanent, nimble organizing entity to ensure synchronization of medical countermeasure efforts across the federal government. It brings together government experts to partner with public health and industry stakeholders to fast-track solutions to health security threats. H-CORE leads the coordination of the acquisition and distribution of COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic treatments, and it coordinated the distribution of at-home COVID-19 tests and high-quality N95 masks.

Working at ASPR

ASPR hires from a range of backgrounds, especially from medicine, public health, and emergency management.

To find open full-time positions at ASPR, check out its careers page and send an email to ASPRTalentAcquisition@hhs.gov.  Visit USAJOBS filtering for “Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response” and follow ASPR on LinkedIn. You can also explore roles at BARDA specifically via their careers page.

Notable early-career opportunities (e.g. internships, fellowships) at ASPR include:

• ASPR (internships):
  • Science, Preparedness, Response, Innovations, and New Technologies (SPRINT): 6-week, part-time, paid summer internship for high school students residing in the DC area to engage with and learn about BARDA.
  • Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange Volunteer (TRACIE): a remote, part-time, unpaid internship supporting the TRACIE team.
• Fellowships facilitating placements at HHS and its operating divisions:
  • Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF): a 2-year full-time executive branch fellowship for graduate degree holders. HHS offers more PMF placement opportunities than any other federal agency.
  • Horizon Fellowship: a 1-2 year full-time US emerging technology policy fellowship facilitating job placements in the executive branch, Congress, or think tanks for early- and mid-career scientists and technologists. (Note that this website and the fellowship are both projects of the Horizon Institute for Public Service.)
  • AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship: a 1-2 year full-time executive branch and congressional fellowship for science PhDs and engineers.
  • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship: a 1-year full-time executive branch fellowship focused on health and biosecurity policy for mid-career professionals.
  • Oak Ridge Institute for Science & Education (ORISE): provides primarily research-based fellowship and internship opportunities in collaboration with federal agencies for undergraduates, graduates, and postgraduates. They have opportunity pages for CDC, FDA, and NIH or you can filter their available opportunities page by institution.
  • The US Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps: a uniformed service of public health professionals. PHS officers can be assigned to work in ASPR, FDA, CDC, NIH, and other parts of HHS, and are sometimes deployed in response to public health emergencies, such as hurricanes or COVID-19.

Further reading

• ASPR Strategic Plan 2022-2026
• BARDA’s Strategic Plan 2022-2026
• ASPR’s National Health Security Strategy
• ASPR’s Role in the Federal COVID-19 Response
• BARDA’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Strategy
• ASPR’s 2022 Public Health Emergency MedicalCountermeasure Enterprise (PHEMCE) Strategy and Implementation Plan