RDML Michael W. Schmoyer, Ph.D.

RDML Michael Schmoyer is the Chief of Staff for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Prior to that assignment, he stood up and oversaw a new national security-focused office as the Chief Workforce Protection Officer for the Executive Office of the President at the White House.

Preceding his White House tour, Michael was the Assistant Deputy Secretary/National Security Advisor to the Secretary at HHS and Director of the Office of National Security (ONS). In this role, RDML Schmoyer served as the Secretary’s Senior Intelligence Official and Federal Senior Intelligence Coordinator with the Intelligence Community for all of HHS. Prior to ONS’ organizational change to the Immediate Office of the Secretary from the Assistant Secretary of Administration office, Michael was the Deputy Assistant Secretary/Security.

While serving as the Assistant Deputy Secretary at HHS, RDML Schmoyer served a detail at the White House as the Assistant Director for Health Security Threats within the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Among other portfolios, RDML Schmoyer was responsible for the President’s National Science and Technology Council’s Health Security Threat subcommittee, the National Strategy for Planetary Protection, and the National Plan for Predictive Analytics, Forecasting, and Modeling for Preventing Future Threats.

Prior to his work in ONS, Michael was the Director of the Office of Pandemics and Emerging Threats (PET) within the Office of Global Affairs at HHS. Preceding his time with HHS/OGA/PET, Michael served as the HHS/ASPR Senior Advisor and representative to the Department of Defense’s U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), supporting 31 countries and 10 territories in Latin America. His portfolio included global health security issues relating to national security, countering terrorism, pandemic and other emerging threats, and public health capacity building activities with partner nations. He also served as the Command’s first interagency branch chief for partner agency liaisons.

Before USSOUTHCOM, Michael was the Deputy Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Central America and Panama Regional Office in Guatemala; he also simultaneously served as acting regional director for six months. Programs in the eight countries included Global Disease Detection, Influenza, and All Hazards Preparedness and Response.

Before Guatemala, Michael was Interim Director for the CDC Central Asia Regional Office in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He worked with the five countries in the office’s geographic responsibility on programs that included DoD/Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Cooperative Threat Reduction, Influenza, and All Hazards Preparedness & Response. Prior to serving as Interim Director, Michael was the Regional Deputy Director. Before this assignment, he had served in several domestic public health-related positions within the U.S. Government (including the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention/Division of Adolescent & School Health) as well as the University of Florida, the University of Rochester, and SUNY Brockport.

RDML Schmoyer completed his PhD in Health Behavior at the University of Florida. He earned his BS (double major in Physical Education and Health Science) and MS (Community Health) from SUNY College at Brockport. Michael has had training in several languages and has participated in martial arts throughout his life.