Senior leader briefing

Overview: You are an expert in biodefense, bioterrorism, and biosecurity. On Monday, your leadership asks you to provide a briefing to the National Security Staff to inform a decision on future investments in U.S. biodefense capabilities. You have one week to complete this 10 slide presentation. Remember, since it is designed to support a major decision, you will need to consider requirements, gaps, alternative investment choices, and a recommendation.

Criteria (and grading – out of 100):

FORMAT (10 points): 10 slides (not including references or cover slide). The presentation is professional and engaging.

Include a cover slide, a “bottom line up front” (BLUF) slide and overview of the presentation.

Please use APA format to reference credible sources, both in the body of the presentation and in your references, which should be in a reference section at the end of your briefing.

CONTENT (70 points): The information presented should include the following:

(10 of the 65 points) BLUF and Overview are clear and representative of the information in the briefing

(15 of the 65 points) Identification of 3 KEY biodefense requirements. Take a stand on what you believe are key requirements – and defend it with relevant facts. This should not be general (e.g., “we need response capabilities”), but should be fairly specific (“we need rapid diagnostics to identify actually exposed populations from the worried well”)

(10 of the 65 points) Overview and Assessment of current U.S. biodefense capabilities and policies – especially any particular regulations or laws that pertain to your key biodefense requirements

(10 of the 65 points) Assessment of how current capabilities and policies do/do not meet your key biodefense requirements

(15 of the 65 points) Discussion of options on ways to better meet your 3 key requirements. This should include 3-5 options, including a brief description of each and what relevant stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities would be. (Who needs to be funded to do what?)

(10 of the 65 points) Recommendation for decisionmakers, including a rationale for why this recommendation is being made.

3. PRESENTATION (20 points): PowerPoint must be organized in logical fashion and be visually engaging (i.e., well-designed). HOW you convey information is as important as WHAT you convey. If what you present is confusing or flows poorly, you will quickly lose leadership interest.

The presentation should be short and concise with pertinent information illustrated in a professional, coherent manner.

Font and graphics (tables, charts, maps, etc.) should be legible and visually appealing. Remember, you are not writing a report then doing a copy/paste into a ppt slide.

You MUST use the comments section to provide information which a speaker might include when discussing the slide. This should form a coherent narrative from start to finish.

Preferred language style Simple US English(Easy vocabulary, simple grammar constructions)