Dr. Vanderwagen is a family physician who retired as a Rear Admiral in the United States Public Health Service in 2009. He served for 25 years in the Indian Health Service, the federal program of medical and public health services for American Indians and Alaska Natives much of that time as Chief Medical Officer and Director of Clinical and Preventive Services. During this period he also served as the lead health official at a number of disasters including: medical care for Kosovar refugees (1999); advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Health (2002); director of public health and advisor to the Iraq Ministry of Health (2003-2004); the USNS Mercy response to the 2004 tsunami; and commander of the public health and medical response to Hurricanes Katrina/Rita. Dr. Vanderwagen’s last federal assignment (2006-9) was as the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). He was responsible for leading all federal public health and medical assets in disaster response and, responsibility for guiding the $11B DHHS medical countermeasure advanced development program to address CBRN threats which now has over 100 products in the development pipeline.

Dr. Vanderwagen is currently Co-Chair of the National Academy of Medicine MedPrep Forum. He is an instructor at Harvard Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Vanderwagen was a Director and General Manager of East West Protection, a Potomac MD based firm specializing in public health and medical preparedness, detection, response, and command and control systems for CBRN threats and other disasters from 2013-2021. He was from 2015-2022 Chairman of the Advisory Board of E-N-G Mobile Systems, a design and construction firm specializing in mobile laboratories, clean room manufacturing, and public safety vehicles. He is Past Chairman of the Board at VIDO-Intervac, a Canadian vaccine research and development company. He was also a senior partner at Martin, Blanck, and Associates, a consulting firm of retired General and Flag officers specializing in military health matters from 2011- 2019. He is a frequent public speaker on biodefense, public health preparedness, comprehensive health systems, and community engagement.