Kenneth W. Bernard

enneth Bernard describes his job as coordinating policy among departments that range from Health and Human Services to the Defense Department. "You really need somebody at the White House, when you're dealing with coming up with common, unified government policy, to ensure that all agencies and departments are well represented," said Bernard, who sits on the White House Homeland Security Council. "In this job, you've got to foster ownership of policy by those who have the responsibility to implement it."

Originally from California, Bernard, 54, has worked on public policy and health issues throughout his career. Since graduating from medical school at the University of California (Davis), Bernard has served as a research epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, as a public health adviser to the Peace Corps, and as the international health attaché of the U.S. mission to the United Nations in Geneva, among other positions.

The expertise Bernard applies the most in his current job, however, relates more to the bureaucratic complexities of the interagency process than to medicine or biology. Bernard said that working on the National Security Council staff as a special adviser to President Clinton on health and security matters taught him how to macro-manage policy. "It's the kind of education that's difficult to do except on the job," Bernard said.

In the Bush White House, Bernard has focused largely on building up government stockpiles of drugs and emergency medical supplies; deploying electronic air monitors in urban areas to sniff for traces of biological and chemical toxins; and putting together a comprehensive overview of the U.S. posture on biodefense. "Our end-to-end assessment is looking for those things that we've done and those things that need to be done, what vulnerabilities exist, and looking for ways to fill them."