PERSON: Deanne Criswell

U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency

Administrator

Deanne Bennett Criswell is an American emergency management officer who has served as the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency since April 2021. Criswell is the first woman to lead FEMA. She was previously the commissioner of the New York City Emergency Management Office.

Criswell attended elementary school in Free Soil, Michigan and was graduated in 1984 from Catholic Central High School in Manistee, Michigan. She then earned a Bachelor of Science in technology education from Colorado State University, a Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver, and a Master of Arts in homeland security from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Criswell served as a member of the Colorado Air National Guard with the 140th Wing and was deployed to Kuwait directly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. She also worked as a firefighter for 21 years. Criswell managed the Office of Emergency Management for the city of Aurora, Colorado. She later worked in the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Barack Obama Administration before becoming the commissioner of the New York City Emergency Management department in 2019.

Her nomination to be the next FEMA administrator was submitted to the United States Senate on February 22, 2021. She was confirmed unanimously on April 22, 2021, by voice vote, and was sworn in by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on April 26, 2021. Criswell reintroduced the FEMA flag on April 12, 2022, for public display.

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