Yoni Bock serves as a Humanitarian Assistance Advisor/Military based in Washington, DC. He has worked with OFDA for nearly ten years, including positions in OFDA’s information/reporting unit, Middle East/Central Asia team, and since 2009, with OFDA's Military Liaison Team. A certified trainer, Yoni facilitates nearly twenty Joint Humanitarian Operations Courses a year educating US military colleagues on U.S. Government best practices, policies, and procedures for conducting overseas humanitarian assistance.
During his tenure with OFDA, Yoni has participated in numerous disaster responses, including on the DART deployed to Kenya following the 2007 post-election violence and on technical teams sent to Greece and China following the wildfires and earthquake in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Yoni deployed as the DART’s Civil Military Coordinator for the Joint Support Force at Yokota Air Base providing guidance to the 4- and 3-star leadership on humanitarian requirements, including how best to direct U.S. military assets to deliver life-saving assistance and reinforce the vital strategic relationship between the U.S. and Japan.
From August to September 2014, Yoni served as Response Manager for OFDA’s response to events in northern and central Iraq, supervising a team of twenty to coordinate the US Government’s humanitarian response to rapid displacement, including air drops of relief to displaced populations stranded on Sinjar mountain.
From December 2009 through May 2010, Yoni was detailed to the Pentagon, where he supported the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Policy during the Haiti Earthquake response as a military liaison officer and worked on updating DoD policy pertaining to international disaster response. Between 2010 and 2012, Yoni was assigned to CENTCOM in Tampa, FL, as the Senior Humanitarian Advisor to the command, providing input on various exercises and operational guidance on military requirements during emergencies in Central Asia, including the 2010 Pakistan floods.
From 2008 to 2009, Yoni covered OFDA's Iraq portfolio, including overseeing the programming of more than $80 million in emergency and transitional assistance. In 2006, he drafted the U.S. Army training manual "Working with OFDA", a precursor to the DoD handbook on Support to Foreign Disaster Relief (GTA 90-01-030).
A Boston native and life-long Red Sox fan, Yoni holds an MA in Law and Diplomacy (focus area: International Security Studies) from Tufts University's Fletcher School and a BA (Religion and Middle East Studies) from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.