Eric Cote is an accomplished crisis communications advisor who also has broader expertise in strategic communications and public policy development. Eric also has expertise in emergency management with a focus public health preparedness.

In addition to his consulting role with Paratus Security Group, Eric is the Founder and Project Director of Powered for Patients, a federally funded 501(c)3 formed to address lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy when the failure of emergency power supply systems led to patient fatalities and emergency evacuations of numerous hospitals. Powered for Patients promotes best practices in safeguarding emergency power systems while facilitating accelerated information sharing between hospitals, government and utilities when hospital back up power is threatened during extended power outages.

In his capacity as Project Director for Powered for Patients, Eric is currently managing a Department of Homeland Security-contract to develop a new technology to harness real time status reports from
hospital emergency power systems. Eric co-authored Roadmap to Resiliency: a white paper jointly
published in 2017 by Powered for Patients and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). Roadmap to Resiliency details newer power generation technologies such as CHP and microgrids that hospitals can use to reduce reliance on the grid while expanding emergency power capabilities.

Cote is also the author of Protecting Patients When Disaster Strikes: A Playbook for Safeguarding
Emergency Power Systems for Critical Healthcare Facilities During Extended Power Outages. The
Playbook was published in March 2017 as part of a Department of Homeland Security-funded initiative undertaken between Powered for Patients and the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency.

In addition to his role as Project Director for Powered for Patients, Cote provides a range of
communications services to public and private sector organizations including crisis communications and development and implementation of strategic communications plans. His crisis communications
expertise has been tapped by education facilities throughout the U.S., including schools who hired Eric to help lead communications response to allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of current or former faculty members. Eric’s broader strategic communications skills have been tapped by Brown University’s School of Public Health, Hillsdale College in Michigan and a group of alumnae from Sweet Briar College who successfully blocked an attempt to close the all-woman’s school in 2015. Eric developed and implemented the PR strategy that was credited with helping to block the closure.

Eric was also a contributing author for the recently published Capacity-Building Toolkit for including
Aging & Disability Networks in Emergency Planning developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to establishing his communications and public policy consultancy, Cote served as a senior advisor to the Governor of Rhode Island, working initially as the Governor’s Director of Federal Relations before serving as the Governor’s spokesman and press secretary. Cote previously served as press secretary to a member of Congress from Western New York.
Cote has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of Rhode Island.

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