After four years of intensive military training, treating wounded soldiers and working under fire, Ashkenazi started his residency in ophthalmology at Sheba Medical Center in 1986.

In 1997, he was promoted to full colonel with the responsibilities of Surgeon General for the Home Front Command (HFC) and the National Medical Coordinator for Mass Casualty Incidents and Disasters.

Over the past twenty years, Ashkenazi has become increasingly interested in disaster management and has served in humanitarian missions in Asia, Africa and Europe on YouTube.

He has published more than two hundred papers in medical and scientific journals, and presented his work across North and South America,[8][9] Africa, Europe Asia and the Middle-East.

[10] Working with his colleagues Leonard Marcus and Barry Dorn at the NPLI, Ashkenazi has been instrumental in the development of the concept and practice of meta-leadership and, specifically, its adoption by emergency response leaders.