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Nicholas Cagliuso, 32
Coordinator of Emergency Preparedness
New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System
Nick Cagliuso planned to follow in his engineer father's footsteps when he took a management trainee position in 2001 at the agency where his dad spent his entire career, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. But his life took a sharp turn on Sept. 11. Mr. Cagliuso was at work on the 86th floor of 1 World Trade Center when the first jet hit.
Mr. Cagliuso, a former emergency medical technician for the New York Fire Department, found that his old EMT mind-set "just clicked on," and he shattered a window to clear the choking smoke.
"We had no idea how serious things were," he says. "I thought I'd be in big trouble for breaking the window."
Mr. Cagliuso then led 56 people down a series of staircases, switching course whenever debris blocked the route. The tower came down 13 minutes after the last person in his group left the building.
The rescue effort was an epiphany for Mr. Cagliuso, who also holds a master's degree in public health and has taught college-level economics. He switched careers, and in 2005, he got his dream job in emergency management.
In the 18 months that the New School doctoral candidate has been at NY-Presby, he has taken $600,000 worth of emergency preparedness grants and expanded it to nearly $3 million by seeking out new funding sources. Instruction programs and drills that he has developed are now used at 43 NY-Presby sites, including 11 facilities in New York City and system affiliates in four states.
"Nick combines a strong background in operations with a scientific approach to problem-solving and a personality that helps build consensus," says Dr. Eliot Lazar, NY-Presby's chief medical officer.