Profile
Joseph Pfeifer is
the Chief of Counterterrorism and Emergency Preparedness for the FDNY. He
has
commanded some of the largest fires and emergencies in the department’s history and was
the first Chief at the World Trade Center attack on the morning of September 11, 2001. He directs
the FDNY’s
Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness, which he founded after 9/11. Since then,
he has assessed the Department’s 9/11 response, identified new budget and policy priorities,
helped overhaul management practices, created partner
ships to supplement the Department’s
existing competencies with new expertise, shaped new technologies for emergency response and
developed the FDNY’s first Strategic Plan, Terrorism Preparedness Strategy, and Marine
Operations Strategy. He produces weekly analyses of threats and crisis response throughout the
world and is also a Citywide Command Chief, responsible for commanding major incidents.
Pfeifer is a program affiliate and visiting fellow of the Program on Crisis Leadership at Harvard
Kennedy School and has presented in several of the program’s flagship Executive Education
programs, including Leadership in Crises and China Crisis Management.
He is also Senior
Fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and has spoken about crisis leadership
and disaster management at Harvard University, Columbia University, Wharton, Kellogg School
of Management, the United States Military Academy,
the FBI,
Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
He
holds
a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School,
a Masters in Security Studies
from
the Naval Postgraduate School
and
a Masters in Theology
from Immaculate Conception.
He writes frequently and is published in various books and
journals.
PCL
Working Paper:
Pfeifer, Joseph
“Crisis Leadership: Adapting to Extreme Events.” 2012
Selected Publication Citations:
- Pfeifer, J. “Adapting to Novelty: The need for Innovation and Leadership.”
WNYF, 1st
/2012.
- Pfeifer, J. “Network Command: The High
-
Tech Future of Incident Management”,
WNYF, 1st
/2009.
- Pfeifer, J.
“The Decisive Moment: Decision
–
The Science of decision making under stress”
in
Leadership in Dangerous Situations.
ed.
by Sweeney,
P.
Matthews, M.
and Lester
, P.
Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011.
- Pfeifer, J.
“The Foreword”
in
Extremist Leadership
by Kolditz,
T.
2008.
- Pfeifer, J.
“Understanding How Organizational Bias Influenced First Responders” in
Psychology of Terrorism, ed. Bongar, Zimbardo, etc al. NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.
- Sawyer,
R. & Pfeifer, J.
“Strategic Planning for First Responders,”
Homeland Security
and
Terrorism
, ed.
Sawyer and
Howard. New York: McGraw
-
Hill, 2006.