Michael J. Fagel, Ph.D., CEM, has more than 40 years of experience in emergency management, including ten years as a Disaster Safety Officer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). During his career he has been been involved in fire service, emergency medical service, public health, law enforcement and emergency management, bio-terrorism awareness and prevention, as well as corporate safety, security and threat risk management.

He served as an officer on the North Aurora Fire Department for over 28 years and in that time served as the EMS Coordinator and the Emergency Management Agency director. He was a responder to many federally declared emergencies, including deployment to Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 and World Trade Center Attacks in 2001. He has provided WMD instruction to managers at federal facilities nationwide for the U.S. Army, as well as providing technical support to state and county agencies on the CDC's SNS Planning. He has served as a subject matter expert for the National Guard Bureau AEAS and provided national EOC planning and CONOPS for the USA and Middle East venues, including EOC support at the Salt Lake City Olympics. He was a team leader at the Louisiana State University's National Center for Bio Medical Research and Training (NCBRT) in their Response to Agricultural Terrorism Training Program, as well as their Public Health Programs in Response to High Consequence Events.

Currently, he teaches at the University of Chicago in their Masters of Threat Response Management Program. He also teaches Bio Defense/Homeland Security at Northwestern University in Chicago in their Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration program, as well at Benedictine University in the Masters in Public Health program, and Eastern Kentucky University in their Safety Security Emergency Management Masters program. He is a guest lecturer for many universities and organizations nationwide, including being a subject matter expert (SME) for the National Center for Security and Preparedness (NCSP) at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Fagel is also currently a Homeland Security Analyst at the Argonne National Laboratory engaged in the protection of Critical Infrastructure.

He is a member of the Northern Illinois Critical Incident Stress Debriefing team, the International Association of Fire Chiefs Committee on Safety and Health, as well as their Terrorism Committee. He served on the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, and was the Region V President for the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), and was a vice-chairman for the Certified Emergency Manager Commissioner (CEM) for IAEM. He is the IAEM liaison to USDA/FDA and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC).

He has published hundreds of articles, two textbooks on Emergency Management, and been a contributing editor to several industry journals. He has been a chapter contributor for textbooks written by IAEM, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and National Safety Council (NSC), as well as others.