Before committing to offer his expertise to his community, JD Dorfman was the Emergency Management Coordinator and Emergency Preparedness Planner for Kaiser Permanete Los Angeles Medical Center a 560-bed tertiary medical center and academic institute of Southern California. The hospital also has within the campus an 80-bed tertiary pediatric hospital and a 68-bed Mental Health Center.

JD managed the Emerging Infectious Disease Grants for the state of California and the Hospital Preparedness Program for Los Angeles County. JD has been at the forefront of all COVID-19 planning and response for Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles and for the County Los Angeles as one of the LA County Disaster Resource Center Coordinators. JD sat on multiple committees including: Emergency Management Committee, Active Shooter Preparedness, Covid-19 Vaccination Planning, Emergency Preparedness Planners Peer Group, and more.

Previously, JD managed the operational tempo and scope for all of Reach Out WorldWide’s (ROWW) field missions and operations. ROWW is a NGO founded by the late Paul Walker with the goal of deploying highly skilled and specialized disaster response and medical teams to the most remote regions of the world following catastrophic disasters with the hope of bridging the gap between the event and long term recovery.

JD designed the policies and procedures for response and recovery operations for international and domestic operations. Working with ROWW since 2011 and carrying the leading role in Operations, ROWW has tremendously increased its operational capacity and efficiency while successfully completing numerous domestic and international missions, including leading one of the first medical teams into the hardest hit areas after Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Philippines.

With a background and education in fire service and communication, JD previously worked for the City of Fort Jones as a firefighter/EMT and for Friends and Helpers as head of logistics.