Joshua Filler

oshua Filler served dual roles in former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's office when he worked there. "Two jobs, one paycheck," joked Filler, who was Giuliani's director of legislative affairs and his chief of staff to the deputy mayor for operations. The combined positions took on enormous significance after 9/11, when Filler was assigned the responsibility of coordinating the city's communications with state, local, and federal authorities.

Early in 2002, Filler joined the White House Office of Homeland Security, motivated by his experiences in New York. "The mission of the office was to prevent another 9/11, and having witnessed it first-hand, that was something I wanted to be a part of," said Filler, a Boston native who studied political science at Boston University before earning a law degree at St. John's University in Queens, N.Y.

At the White House, Filler built on the work he had done in New York, dealing with state and local governments and their associations on homeland-security issues. "That meant everything from just keeping them up to date as to what was going on and what we were doing, to actually being part of an incident support group," said Filler, who now serves as the director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination at the Homeland Security Department.

Filler, 33, said his current role differs from his work at the White House in that he has a staff and broader responsibilities. "If there's an incident, I play more of a managerial role now than I did before," he said. "The key for our office is really trying to make sure that all the elements of DHS that have a stake in the things that are important to state and locals are coordinated."