Washington, DC, July 25, 2023 — With Board of Directors’ support, the National Association of County and City Health Officials’ Chief Executive Officer, Lori Tremmel Freeman, named Chris Paquet as the organization’s new Chief Operating Officer in the Office of the CEO. Paquet will be joining NACCHO’s Executive Team and Leadership Council.
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome Chris to NACCHO to lead the organization’s internal operating environment, including between teams,” said Freeman. “His priorities will be focused specifically on advancing our journey to make NACCHO a better workplace for staff by focusing on continuous quality improvement; looking deeply at our policies, practices, and processes and offering solutions; and assisting with aligning the coordination of NACCHO’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across the organization, among other responsibilities. The intent of all this work is to improve how staff, and others who interact with us, experience NACCHO,” said Freeman.
Paquet comes to NACCHO after serving 15 years in several leadership roles at the New York City Department of Health, including his most recent position as the Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Healthcare System and Community Readiness, where he worked with his team to build out, maintain and find innovative ways to strengthen the key capabilities needed to prepare, respond, and recover from emergencies with the primary goal of protecting the public’s health. Paquet also led his team to address policy issues, provide strategic direction, build out technological solutions, and implement critical communication initiatives. He worked closely with government agencies, healthcare delivery systems, community-based organizations, and state and regional health departments to prepare for the unexpected, including COVID-19, infectious diseases (Mpox, Ebola, meningitis, etc.), terrorist attacks, and natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy.
Prior to that role, he was the Acting Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Policy and Community Response and the Senior Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives.
On a national level, he chaired the National Preparedness Initiative started by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Readiness and Response. Most recently, Paquet shared his personal story to address the physical and mental health challenges that first responders and public health officials face in a piece from Naval Post Graduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security Watermark Magazine titled, “Elephant in the Room,” (starting on page 16). He recently shared his story at the 2023 NACCHO360 annual conference at a keynote and panel session titled, “Putting Your Mask on First: Take Care of Our Workforce Wellbeing.”
Before his roles in NYC, Paquet was a COO and consultant for Flanagan Consultants and Flanagan Social Initiatives, among other positions.
Paquet is originally from Biddeford, Maine. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees. He has a Master of Public Administration degree from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, and he is a graduate of both Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Institute and the Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
“I am excited to take on this role with NACCHO to work with our staff and members to improve the holistic set of conditions that will strengthen NACCHO’s ability to deliver on its’ mission,” said Paquet.
NACCHO is pleased to fill this important role with an executive-level professional with extensive local health department and C-suite experiences.
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About NACCHO
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the nation’s nearly 3,000 local governmental health departments. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.
