I’m always interested in people’s career paths into emergency management. This article gives you that for Deanne Criswell, FEMA’s administrator, and also her career path once she became a firefighter.
“FEMA’s Deanne Criswell Talks Following Your Gut and the Agency’s Focus on Equity in Disaster Response”The other big piece of the article is the struggle that FEMA will have with bringing equity to minority and economically disadvantaged populations. In an effort to make sure that only eligible people receive disaster recovery benefits, over time they — aided and abetted by the FEMA inspector general — have constructed fiery hoops to jump through.
Have things gotten a little bit better over the years? Yes. Is there a long way to go? You betcha! It will take a persistent focus at the national level with rule changes and then having that information percolate down through the regions and all FEMA staff to institutionalize new, less complex ways of administering disaster funds, equitably. It will be a journey and not a destination.
Eric Holdeman is a nationally known emergency manager. He has worked in emergency management at the federal, state and local government levels. Today he serves as the Director, Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR), which is part of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER). The focus for his work there is engaging the public and private sectors to work collaboratively on issues of common interest, regionally and cross jurisdictionally.
