Nicholas Cagliuso, Sr., PhD, MPH, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Administration at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Dr. Nicholas V. Cagliuso, Sr., an emergency management leader and scholar of more than 30 years, is Senior Advisor for Emergency Management at MDB, Inc., where he provides expert insights and collaborative solutions to select healthcare, public health and emergency management clients to identify and solve their most pressing challenges.
Based in Washington, D.C, and fueled by his beginnings as an Emergency Medical Technician in Brooklyn, NY, Dr. Cagliuso has led efforts in the Fire Department, City of New York’s Emergency Medical Service, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and Continuum Health Partners.
Dr. Cagliuso is the former founding Scientific Director for Research for the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health’s Military-Civilian National Disaster Medical System Interoperability Study (2020-2021), in Bethesda, MD, where he created, conducted and completed this first-of-its-kind work.
A survivor of the 9/11 attacks on New York City – he was on the 86th floor of One World Trade Center – Dr. Cagliuso is the former founding Senior Assistant Vice President for Emergency Management at NYC Health + Hospitals (2014-2020), the nation’s largest municipal healthcare delivery system. There, he revolutionized the organization’s approach to emergency management, developing its first Incident Command System (ICS) and Emergency Operations Center (EOC). He built a team overseeing finance, administration, Continuity of Operations (COOP), planning, operations, training, exercises, resilience and recovery and countless grants. In 2015, Dr. Cagliuso created its System-wide Special Pathogens Program and served as Liaison Officer for the System’s response to NYC’s confirmed Ebola patient. From 2015 through 2020, Dr. Cagliuso was founding core faculty of the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC), and served as Co-Principal Investigator (2018-2019). In 2018, he assumed responsibility for System-wide Security and Hospital Police, including its Hospital Police Academy and, in 2020, he activated the System’s ICS in response to COVID-19.
Dr. Cagliuso is an accomplished university faculty member, teaching graduate courses in economics, public health preparedness, and disaster research. He is adjunct faculty in Adelphi University’s Emergency Management Graduate Program, where he also served on its Center for Health Innovation’s advisory board (2013-2017). He is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Administration in NYU Wagner’s Online Master of Health Administration program where he teaches strategic management. He is on the Operational Board of the Association of Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Professionals (AHEPP), serving as Director, Strategic Alliances. Renowned for his ambition, Crain’s New York Business Magazine named him in 2007 to its prestigious “40 under 40” list of New York City’s rising stars.
He is an editorial board member of the Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning, and a peer reviewer for Qualitative Health Research, Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
Dr. Cagliuso earned a B.S. in Fire Science, cum laude, from John Jay College, a Master of Public Health in Emergency Medical Services from New York Medical College, and a Ph.D. in Health Care Administration, with distinction, from Capella University. His doctoral dissertation explored the lived experiences of U.S. hospital emergency preparedness stakeholders through a qualitative, phenomenological lens.
