Emergency Preparedness & Response
For more information on CSTE’s Preparedness and Response activities, please contact the CSTE National Office at preparedness@cste.org
Emergency Preparedness and Response
CSTE’s Concept of Operations (ConOps) Plan provides the CSTE National Office with operational guidance for response to natural disasters, disease outbreaks, environmental catastrophes, and other public health emergencies. The ConOps Plan articulates four levels of activation ranging from monitoring (level 1) to full activation with an Incident Command System (level 4) to support member needs.
The CSTE Emergency Preparedness and Response Program supports applied epidemiology by contributing to these priority areas: Communities of Practice, Response Strategy, Response Science, Response Coordination, and Collaboration & Planning.
Program activities support applied epidemiology on state, Tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) levels while simultaneously collaborating with national partners to elevate the critical role of applied epidemiology in public health.
The EPR program:
- Strengthens national public health response capabilities through communities of practice that promote collaboration, shared –learning, and consistent, high-quality practice across jurisdictions.
- Enhances rapid response by facilitating pre‑decisional discussions and timely review of emergent issues.
- Enables knowledge sharing about evolving tools, best practices, and optimizing public health workforce capacity, which all contribute to a stronger foundation of response science.
- Engages CSTE staff in coordinated response efforts to ensure situational awareness and support federal and STLT partners during public health emergencies. Previous responses include activities related to HPAI, measles, New World screwworm, and Marburg virus.
- Facilitates collaborating and planning with key stakeholders across the public health system, advancing coordinated, flexible approaches to emerging threats, maximizing resources, and improving national preparedness.
- Includes routine activities that enhance preparedness and response capacity at both CSTE and STLT public health agencies.
- 24/7 Epi on Call Directory: CSTE maintains a directory of after-hours, or “Epi on Call” phone numbers for states, territories, and select large cities, allowing healthcare providers to report diseases or conditions of public health importance to their health departments at any time.
CSTE Health Security, Policy, and Law (HSPL) Steering Committee:
This Committee supports public health emergency preparedness, response, and recovery through data, collaboration, policy development, and identifying pathways to address legal barriers that impact health security. Its mission is to enhance public health practice for STLT health departments by sharing best practices, fostering partnerships, and offering training and policy guidance.
This Subcommittee is dedicated to addressing the epidemiological and surveillance aspects of public health emergencies. It offers a platform for epidemiologists to exchange insights, pinpoint deficiencies, and create resources or recommendations concerning data gathering, interpretation, and information dissemination throughout all emergency stages. Areas of focus encompass surveillance-related aspects of public health with a focus on monitoring, situational awareness, workforce preparedness, and collaboration with emergency management and healthcare collaborators. Additionally, the Subcommittee contributes to national directives and advocates for best practices to enhance local and state preparedness through an epidemiological perspective.
CSTE Disaster Epidemiology Subcommittee
Subcommittee brings together epidemiologists from various subject disciplines to share best practices and collaborate on epidemiologic approaches towards improving all-hazard disaster preparedness and response capacities at local, state, Tribal, regional, and national levels. It enables the critical use of epidemiologic principles, emergency preparedness planning, and a coordinated disaster response for describing the distribution of injuries, illnesses, and disabilities; rapidly detecting outbreaks or clusters; identifying and implementing timely interventions; evaluating the impacts of public health efforts; and improving public health preparedness planning.
Convening State Epidemiologists via the All State Epi Call
Document review as Subject Matter Experts: As a part of its routine preparedness and response activities and during acute emergency/incident response, CSTE reviews guidance documents, surveillance strategies, and implementation tools prior to public release. CSTE National Office staff distribute materials to specific member experts, collate comments, and provide subject matter expertise.
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For more information on CSTE’s Preparedness and Response activities, please contact the CSTE National Office at preparedness@cste.org.
World Cup 2026
As the World Cup draws global attention, preparedness is key—not just for fans, but for public health, safety, and security professionals.
Response Strategies And Coordination
The CSTE Preparedness and Response Team and other staff from the CSTE National Office engage STLT epidemiologists
Resources
Identify and cultivate partnerships with other practitioners working on chronic disease surveillance modernization.
Contact Us
For more information, contact preparedness@cste.org for inquiries about the
Preparedness and Response program.
The Chronic Disease Surveillance Modernization Toolkit is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under CDC/HHS as part of a financial assistance award totaling $500,000 with 100% funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.