Nicolette A. Louissaint, PhD, serves as executive director and president of Healthcare Ready, a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on strengthening the United States’ healthcare supply chain preparedness and response before, during and after natural disasters and disease pandemics. After assuming the leadership role in 2017, Nicolette ensured the organization’s ability to establish strategic public/private partnerships and serve as a critical linkage point for the end-to-end supply chain and government partners at the federal, state, and local government level. Today, Healthcare Ready is uniquely positioned to facilitate coordination that improves our nation’s ability to plan for and respond to threats that disrupt patient access to healthcare during crises, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or disease outbreaks, such as COVID-19.

Prior to this role, during the height of the Ebola Epidemic of 2014, Nicolette served as the Senior Advisor to the US State Department’s Special Coordinator for Ebola. In this role, she was responsible for coordinating international efforts and jumpstarted the diplomatic response to the epidemic.

Earlier in her career, Nicolette served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the US Department of State in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. As the lead officer for health intellectual property and trade issues, she advised the State Department’s leadership on issues related to public health, technology transfer, and biotechnology. She also worked on policies related to pharmaceutical counterfeiting, pharmaceutical trade, supply chain, climate change and other science and technology development issues.

In 2019, Nicolette was appointed to serve on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Advisory Council. She also holds a position on Baltimore’s Sustainability Commission. She also serves as a co-Chair of the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council.

Nicolette has an MBA from the University of Baltimore, a Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University, and a PhD in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has also completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Johns Hopkins University and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.