Meet Obama's Ebola Coordinator Lisa Monaco in 5 Photos

Is Lisa Monaco qualified to deal with Ebola?

ByABC News
October 16, 2014, 11:17 AM

— -- The woman coordinating the Obama administration’s response to the nation’s first Ebola scare in history has no background in public health or managing an outbreak.

Lisa Monaco, the president’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, is a lawyer with a background in federal law enforcement, criminal prosecution and crisis response.

She was formerly assistant attorney general for national security and spent years working inside the FBI. For several years she served as counsel and chief of staff to then-director Robert Mueller.

The White House says she is a “highly competent individual” with experience coordinating federal agency responses to national security threats, which include Ebola.

Amid calls for appointment of an “Ebola czar,” the administration is standing by Monaco’s leadership. Officials say what is needed is not a virus expert at the helm but someone capable of integrating multiple – often unwieldy – federal agencies, and that Monaco is best suited for the job.

Monaco has had a prime seat on the Oval Office sofa.

PHOTO: President Barack Obama meets with Kathryn Ruemmler, Lisa Monaco and National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice in the Oval Office, Jan. 7, 2014.
President Barack Obama meets with Kathryn Ruemmler, Lisa Monaco and National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice in the Oval Office, Jan. 7, 2014.

She’s near the head of the table for Situation Room briefings on immigration.

PHOTO: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden listen to Lisa Monaco during a Homeland Security Council meeting regarding immigration, in the Situation Room of the White House, July 21, 2014.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden listen to Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, during a Homeland Security Council meeting regarding immigration, in the Situation Room of the White House, July 21, 2014.

Monaco watched the Boston Marathon Bombing aftermath with President Obama in the West Wing.

PHOTO: President Barack Obama watches television coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings with Lisa Monaco in the Outer Oval Office, April 15, 2013.
President Barack Obama watches television coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings with Lisa Monaco in the Outer Oval Office, April 15, 2013.

Here, she’s on Air Force One helping Obama to craft his response to a devastating tornado.

PHOTO: President Barack Obama, Lisa Monaco, and Marvin Nicholson look out the window of Air Force One to view tornado damage before landing at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, May 26, 2013.
President Barack Obama, Lisa Monaco, and Marvin Nicholson look out the window of Air Force One to view tornado damage before landing at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, May 26, 2013.

She’s even counseled Vice President Joe Biden on the back stoop of the West Wing.

PHOTO: Vice President Joe Biden talks with Lisa Monaco in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 1, 2013.
Vice President Joe Biden talks with Lisa Monaco in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 1, 2013.