RISE 2019 Conference

Graciela Malave, MLS (ASCP)CM, MS, MEP is the Exercise Evaluation Manager for the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) of the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH). She is an instructor at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama, and is a member of the Advisory Group for Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Medical Technology Metro Campus, where she contributes as an instructor in the Laboratory Operations course. She also labors at the Centro Cardiovascular de Puerto Rico y el Caribe as a medical technologist.

A licensed medical technologist, and credited member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) with experience in clinical laboratory operations, management and supervision. Her experience includes working in private, hospital and public health clinical laboratories. Ms. Malave has worked in the Biological and Chemical Emergencies Laboratory (BCEL) of the PRDH as a Biological Safety Level 2(BSL – 2) medical technologist performing molecular analysis on clinical samples for the detection of Arboviral diseases such as Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika during Puerto Rico outbreaks, as well as acting as the BCEL Technical Supervisor during the Zika outbreak in 2015-2016. She has contributed to different articles regarding the Zika outbreak, including Clinical Features of Guillain-Barré Syndrome With vs Without Zika Virus Infection, Puerto Rico, 2016 (JAMA Neurology). She has been the Biological and Chemical (BT & CT) Coordinator for PRDH, responsible for the training, exercise performance and coordination of real life biological and chemical emergency response by clinical laboratories in Puerto Rico, including public health laboratories, with other response agencies such as the FBI.

Ms. Malave is a certified Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) with experience in exercise planning, development and evaluation. She is currently responsible for the exercise program for the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) and Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreements of PRDH. Ms. Malave was a panelist during the “Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP): Beyond the Templates” session in the 2019 National Preparedness Symposium. She has participated in the planning, execution and evaluation of full scale exercises in Puerto Rico such as “Tropical Journey” and “Vigilant Guard 19-2,” as well as in the United States (“2018 Highly Infectious Disease FSE” and “Capital Fortitude FSE”). She is also responsible for training and developing PRDH’s exercise control and evaluation group to support the exercise program.

As part of her functions in the OPHPR, Ms Malave performs duties as ESF-8 representative at the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau (PREMB) State Emergency Operations Center (EOC). She was part of the PRDH response during hurricanes Irma and Maria. After Hurricane Irma, she participated as the PRDH Liaison receiving dialysis patients from the Virgin Islands at the Luis Muñoz Marin (LMM) International Airport and supporting the coordination of their immediate transport to dialysis clinics in the Island. She was deployed as the coordinator of the PRDH task force in the Puerto Rico Convention Center to support shelter management for dialysis patients in collaboration with HHS and Puerto Rico Department of Housing. During the strike of Hurricane Maria, the Convention Center remained a shelter for special need population, and Ms Malave, remained as a part of the PRDH task force. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, she participated as an ESF-8 representative in the Joint Field Office (JFO), coordinating services to impacted areas and providing situational awareness of ESF-8 missions to collaborating agencies. A part of her experience she was an invited speaker at the 2018 National Hurricane Conference in the “Hurricanes Irma and Maria Response Operations in Puerto Rico” session.