Emergency Preparedness & Response Operations

Captain Skip Payne is an active duty officer in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps assigned to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as the Director for Emergency Preparedness & Response Operations (EPRO). He also serves as the CMS Continuity Manager. CAPT Payne represents the agency on several department-level and interagency councils and committees. His senior professional-level agency staff is responsible for ensuring that CMS is prepared, equipped, trained, and ready to respond to the consequences of domestic and international public health and medical threats, emergencies, pandemics, and disasters, mitigate their effects, and recover from their impacts.

CAPT Payne previously served at the HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (now the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response) and the Office of the Surgeon General, where he helped lead the Medical Reserve Corps - a national network of volunteers, organized locally to improve the health and safety of their communities - and helped establish ASPR’s Division of Intelligence – a unit intended to track and analyze emergent public health threats and related trends. Before these roles, he served as a Consumer Safety Officer in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Detroit District Office, where he enforced laws and regulations and investigated complaints, illness, and deaths of FDA-regulated products to protect consumers from harmful, impure, or ineffective products.

Before joining the USPHS Commissioned Corps, CAPT Payne was a local public health epidemiologist and bioterrorism readiness coordinator for the Seneca County General Health District in Seneca County, OH. He has earned a Master of Science degree in public health and a Bachelor of Arts degree in management and organizational development. He is also a Partnership for Public Service’s Excellence in Government Fellows Program graduate and holds multiple professional certifications.

Throughout his career, CAPT Payne has had extensive deployment and response experience. He has responded to State-level Emergency Operations Centers and federal-level Multiagency Command Centers for National Special Security Events, such as Presidential Inaugurations, State of the Unions, and dignitary visits, served as the Subject Matter Expert for the Secretary’s Emergency Management Group’s Ebola Virus Disease Taskforce and to natural disasters, such as Hurricanes Maria, Irene, and Gustav.

Deputy Director

Rodney Waltersdorff joins CMS as the Deputy Director for Emergency Preparedness and Response Operations (EPRO). Rodney started his career in 2004 with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a Logistics Management Specialist working at a Maryland-based Distribution Center.  In 2009, Rodney transitioned, along with the National Disaster Medical Systems (NDMS), to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), working as the National Program Manager for Supply Chain Operations, Transportation, and Logistics. This position allowed him the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge working with Senior Executives at the headquarters level as well as directly with field response agents during numerous disaster responses and National Special Security Events both within the continental and outside the United States. 

Rodney joins us directly from the Department of Veterans Affairs, where he served as the Deputy Branch Chief for Logistics within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Emergency Management (OEM). During his career with VHA OEM, Rodney has been instrumental in assisting in the development of the administration’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Program (CEMP) as well as the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). 

Rodney has more than 18 years of experience working with Emergency Management and Continuity planning.  Rodney has completed the National Emergency Management Basic Academy (NEMBA) through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Emergency Management Institute, as well as obtained a Master’s Degree in Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness, a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and Justice Studies, and has completed multiple professional certifications.