Sarah Sybert
Jacobs has appointed Nino Kharaishvili, a global expert in health security and health system emergency preparedness and resilience, to the company's Federal and Environmental Solutions team as principal of the Health System Resilience practice, the company reported on Thursday.
"Jacobs recognizes that the challenges we face today with the COVID-19 pandemic, and those we anticipate in the future, require more resilient, holistic solutions to improve public health," said Jacobs Federal & Environmental Solutions Senior Vice President and General Manager Tim Byers.
The Health System Resilience practice has combined Jacobs' expertise in policy development, legislation and planning for emergency preparedness, response and recovery. Additionally, the practice has integrated broader organizational/inter-agency coordination, comprehensive healthcare infrastructure services, logistics and supply chain management.
"Dr. Kharaishvili strengthens our already impressive healthcare services team and brings a new depth of health security expertise, a broad-based understanding of emergency management, and a global consulting portfolio that will be a tremendous asset in leading our Health System Resilience practice," added Byers.Â
As principal of the division, Kharaishvili will bring over 15 years of healthcare systems consulting experience supporting the Department of Defense (DoD) to the team. Prior to joining Jacobs, Kharaishvili supported the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's (DTRA) Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP).
The departments have focused on especially dangerous pathogens and infectious disease surveillance, biosafety and biosecurity. From her experience, she has gained expertise in defining pathways for healthcare system sustainability and resilience.Â
She has also expanded her knowledge of designing and implementing various emergency management exercises that improve public health emergency preparedness and response. At DTRA, Kharaishvili developed a risk assessment tool that analyzes a country's vulnerability to naturally-occurring, accidental or nefarious release of weaponizable infectious pathogens.Â
Kharaishvili’s tool has been used in more than 25 countries to establish a baseline of the health security risk landscape and to provide a foundation for identifying and prioritizing system-wide risk mitigation and management activities.
In addition, she has developed and implemented a Global Health Security Capacity and Capability Measurement Framework. The framework, which has helped transform BTRP's business practices, has tracked impacts across 24 programmatic biosafety, biosecurity and biosurveillance metrics, as well as numerous capability, capacity, sustainability and regional indicators for human and animal health systems.
Kharaishvili received her doctor of medicine degree from Aiety Medical School, Georgia (country), and her Master of Business Administration from the College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York.Â
She also provides academic and technical support to the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University, within the scope of its mission leading domestic and international disaster health education and research efforts.
About Jacobs
At Jacobs, we're challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world's most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good.Â
With $13 billion in revenue and a talent force of more than 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector.
