R. David Paulison Named FEMA Director

At a Washington, D.C. press conference held on April 6, 2006, Charlie Dickinson, Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator, announced that R. David Paulison has been named Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Paulison has been Acting Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response and Acting Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency since September 2005. He had been U.S. Fire Administrator since December 2001. He served as the director of the Preparedness Division of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate/FEMA in the newly created Department of Homeland Security from 2003-2004. Before joining FEMA, Paulison, who has 30 years of fire/rescue services experience, was chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, where he also oversaw the Dade County Emergency Management office. He is a certified paramedic and, as fire chief, oversaw the Miami-Dade Urban Search and Rescue Task Force. His emergency management experience includes Hurricane Andrew and the crash of ValuJet Flight 592. He is also past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and hold positions in several professional associations. He has a bachelor of arts degree from Florida Atlantic University and completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2004, he received the Mason Lankford Fire Service Leadership Award Congressional Fire Service Institute and the LeRoy Collins Distinguished Alumni Award. He was inducted into the Miami-Dade Community College Hall of Fame. He holds positions in several professional associations.