Disaster volunteers come in many shapes and sizes. They can be individual citizens but typically are aligned with an organization that is offering aid to their fellow citizens. However, sometimes emergency managers have found that these well-intentioned volunteers seem to cause more headaches than they solve. Donated goods, for example can cause a mountain of work with many of the donations eventually going into a landfill.

In this Disaster Zone Podcast David Wells, the Director of Disaster Relief for Disaster Relief for Texans on a Mission will dialog with the host about how best to be ready to volunteer and work with other government agencies. David began his response journey as a Baptist pastor in Wyoming, leading his congregation to provide aid to travelers trapped by routine interstate closings due to snow. He later became state director for Disaster Relief for the Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention. As a pastor in Missouri, he led shower, chainsaw, laundry, and feeding response team among Missouri Baptists, eventually becoming associate director for Disaster Relief for the Missouri Baptist Convention. David joined Texans on Mission in 2019.

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Technology is a driving force in public safety today. There are multiple challenges that come with considering which technologies should be adopted and fielded within an organization. Before that can happen, we need to collectively overcome self-imposed barriers to technology adoption, which is the subject of this Disaster Zone Podcast.  

The podcast guest is Garry Briese who has had a distinguished career in the fire service. Only recently retiring in January 2025 as the Executive Director of the Colorado State Fire Chiefs. Previously Garry served for 23 years as the Executive Director/CEO of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) in Washington DC and prior was the Executive Director/CEO of the Florida College of Emergency Physicians for 14 years.   

Additionally, he was appointed as the Regional Administrator for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 8 of the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush. Prior to DHS/FEMA, he was Vice President, Emergency Management & Homeland Security for ICF International, a $1.5 billion NASDAQ-listed professional services corporation.  

Today he serves as one of four independent directors on the corporate Board of Directors of WS Darley Company, a 116-year-old family-owned business founded in 1908.  In 2024, Darley had more than $1 Billion in sales as an international pump & fire apparatus manufacturer & distributor for the military, fire and emergency services.   

Garry has presented at conferences in Japan, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom and across the United States. He is a well-known speaker on leadership and followership and on future challenges for both the private and government sectors. He has broad experience in non-profit organizations and for-profit companies in local, state, national, federal, and international domains His visionary and forward-thinking leadership and accomplishments have been recognized by multiple international and national organizations.


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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been predominantly in the news for many months. Most recently as both President Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security have made remarks that FEMA should be abolished. More recently a 20-person council has been established to examine how best the federal response and recovery efforts to disasters should be accomplished. This then is the topic for this podcast.

Craig Fugate the podcast guest served as President Barack Obama’s FEMA Administrator from May 2009 to January 2017. Previously, he served as Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s Emergency Management Director from 2001-2007 and Governor Charlie Crist from 2007-09.

Fugate led FEMA through multiple record-breaking disaster years and oversaw the Federal Government’s response to major events such as the Joplin and Moore Tornadoes, Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Matthew, and the 2016 Louisiana flooding.

FEMA’s effectiveness in dealing with more than 500 Presidentially declared major disasters and emergencies under Fugate’s leadership restored the faith of the American people in the Federal Government’s ability to respond to disasters.

Prior to his tenure at FEMA, Fugate was widely praised for his management, under Governor Jeb Bush, of the devastating effects of the 2004 and 2005 Florida hurricane seasons (Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Dennis, Katrina, and Wilma). Craig provides senior level advice and consultation in disaster management and resiliency policy through Craig Fugate Consulting LLC.



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Personally, I have had to inform employees that their jobs were being eliminated. Sometimes because of a budget cut, sometimes due to their performance. How we handle these events is important to the people directly impacted and also to those who remain behind. This podcast will be addressing both topics and how to better structure a layoff scenario—and do it with empathy.  

Jim Cichanski, the founder, and Chief Human Resources Officer of Flex HR, has 30+ years experience in human resources, holding senior level positions in companies that were privately held, pre-IPO, foreign owned, joint venture, Fortune 50 and one labeled the “fastest growing F1000 in America.” He has a solid background in high tech, manufacturing, services and management.  

His background in human resources includes organizational process evaluation and improvement, labor laws, integration of businesses, cost reduction, organizational development, and all functional areas of human resources. These include but are not limited to Benefits, Compensation, Staffing, Diversity, ERISA, DOL Compliance, Immigration, Learning & Development, Stock Administration, Executive Compensation, Employee Relations, and over 300 Mergers & Acquisitions. Jim’s experience includes operational HR management knowledge globally in 32 countries and has transitioned companies from 30 to 67,000 employees worldwide. Companies he has worked for include Unisys, Novell, Premiere Technologies and PaySys International. Jim is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.  

Jim also spent 26 years in the Army National Guard achieving the rank of Colonel.

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We continue to see disasters increase in size, frequency and impact. What are we doing wrong when it comes to disaster resilience, especially as it impacts our ability to adapt to the climate impacts that are experiencing and take a longer view to disaster resilience.  

The podcast guest is Jeff Schlegelmilch an Associate Professor for Professional Practice in Climate. He is also the Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia Climate School, as well as the Director of Executive Education and Non-Degree Programs for the Columbia Climate School. His areas of expertise include public health preparedness, community resilience, and the integration of private and public sector capabilities. In addition to his work at Columbia, he also served as an advisor to private sector organizations on topics related to grid resilience planning and advised leaders on preparedness systems and policy at all levels of government. He is an opinion contributor with The Hill and is frequently called upon as an expert for numerous media outlets. He is also the author of Rethinking Readiness: A Brief Guide to Twenty-First-Century Megadisasters and co-author of Catastrophic Incentives: Why Our Approaches To Disasters Keep Falling Short

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As this is being written the firestorm in California is continuing. It is not only government that responds to disasters and the needs of disaster survivors and victims. The Disaster Accountability Project was created to help coordinate nongovernmental organizational efforts. To date, the site has more than 900 organizations registered worldwide. Following a stringent review process, organizations are presented with information that displays proximity to a specific crisis, and the range of services provided to survivors, and a detailed but easy-to-digest overview of the organization’s financial health – which gives an indication of the percentage of aid that will be directly passed on to survivors. You can find all the details at www.smartresponse.org  

The podcast guest is Ben Smilowitz, [email protected]  He witnessed the bungled Hurricane Katrina response while managing a high-volume Red Cross Client Service Center in Gulfport, MS. Soon after, Ben launched Disaster Accountability Project, an independent watchdog, to confront the root causes of the failed Katrina response and maximize the impact of billions of dollars of disaster relief and humanitarian aid.  

Disaster Accountability Project has successfully advocated for the release of millions of dollars of disaster relief and recovery funds after Superstorm Sandy, investigated deficiencies in emergency planning surrounding 19 commercial U.S. nuclear power plants, and improved the transparency of nearly 2 billion dollars of disaster relief donations after disasters in the U.S., Haiti and Nepal.   Under Ben’s leadership, DAP’s reports, advocacy, and op-eds have been covered by global news media including The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and CNN. Many of DAP’s successes over its thirteen years are attributable to the hundreds of volunteers from around the world that Ben has recruited and managed.  

Prior to starting DAP, Ben had a background in youth civic engagement and issue advocacy. He wrote successful legislation in Connecticut and created a Youth Cabinet in Missouri. Ben studied Political Science and Nonprofit Management and holds a law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

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As we look to the future of making for a more disaster resilient future, there are new building technologies that are ready for prime time. One of those is the use of 3D technology for the construction of all types of buildings and other structures.  

In this podcast we learn from one leader in 3D construction, Ziyou Xu, Founder of RIC Technology. 3D printing using concrete uses less labor and is very flexible in how the materials can be used. When thinking about building for disaster resilience, be it for fires or earthquakes, concrete is an excellent choice of materials. In this podcast you will learn about the advantages of the technology and how its use is expanding widely here in the United States and around the world.

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As this is being written the firestorm in California is continuing. It is not only government that responds to disasters and the needs of disaster survivors and victims. The Disaster Accountability Project was created to help coordinate nongovernmental organizational efforts. To date, the site has more than 900 organizations registered worldwide. Following a stringent review process, organizations are presented with information that displays proximity to a specific crisis, and the range of services provided to survivors, and a detailed but easy-to-digest overview of the organization’s financial health – which gives an indication of the percentage of aid that will be directly passed on to survivors. You can find all the details at www.smartresponse.org  

The podcast guest is Ben Smilowitz, [email protected] He witnessed the bungled Hurricane Katrina response while managing a high-volume Red Cross Client Service Center in Gulfport, MS. Soon after, Ben launched Disaster Accountability Project, an independent watchdog, to confront the root causes of the failed Katrina response and maximize the impact of billions of dollars of disaster relief and humanitarian aid.  

Disaster Accountability Project has successfully advocated for the release of millions of dollars of disaster relief and recovery funds after Superstorm Sandy, investigated deficiencies in emergency planning surrounding 19 commercial U.S. nuclear power plants, and improved the transparency of nearly 2 billion dollars of disaster relief donations after disasters in the U.S., Haiti and Nepal.  

Under Ben’s leadership, DAP’s reports, advocacy, and op-eds have been covered by global news media including The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and CNN. Many of DAP’s successes over its thirteen years are attributable to the hundreds of volunteers from around the world that Ben has recruited and managed.  

Prior to starting DAP, Ben had a background in youth civic engagement and issue advocacy. He wrote successful legislation in Connecticut and created a Youth Cabinet in Missouri. Ben studied Political Science and Nonprofit Management and holds a law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

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In this podcast we explore what makes for effective alerts and warnings with one of the preeminent scholars and researching these topics today. 

Jeannette Sutton, Ph.D., specializes in disaster and risk with a primary focus on online informal communication, and public alerts and warnings disseminated via short messaging channels. Much of her research investigates the evolving role of information and communication technology, including social media and mobile devices, for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Her current work centers on message design and testing across a range of hazard contexts including atmospheric, meteorological, geological, technological, biological, and human induced threats for communication via Wireless Emergency Alerts and other alerting channels. See this link for The Warning Lexicon   

She is employed at the University at Albany, SUNY, as an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security where she directs the Emergency and Risk Communication Message Testing Lab. She is also the founder of The Warn Room, LLC (thewarnroom.com) where you can get more resources to support your mission of warning people, and provides evidence-based advice on effective alert and warning messages. Dr. Sutton holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and completed her postdoctoral training at the Natural Hazards Center.

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UPDATED EPISODE! As you may have noticed, we accidently posted Pete's last episode, equally good and worth a listen but you should also check out today's episode talking about the future of FEMA.

The new Trump Administration has started out with a slew of news impacting emergency management. There were two trips to disaster areas. One in the Southeast and North Carolina, where the President stated that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had performed poorly and even politicized the disaster relief. He promised to fix those issues. Then, a trip to Southern California to view the impacts of the Los Angeles fires. Prior to the trip he was critical of the State of California for its water policies and failure to maintain the forests by raking up the leaves, etc.

That was followed by executive orders and memos that 1) Cancelled all advisory committees which would include one that advises FEMA. 2) The Office of Management and Budget (OMG) sent out a memo to all federal agencies to pause funding all grants to organizations—later withdrawn. 3) An email was sent to all Federal employees offering them basically seven months of pay—free, if they took the option to leave Federal employment after September 2025. The President also is establishing a group to study FEMA and make recommendations for how to reform the agency. Members of that council have yet to be named at this writing.

In this podcast we will be discussing the types of changes that could be made to make FEMA more functional as an organization and then consider what types of major policy changes could be in the offing, e.g. shifting more of the burden of disaster recovery costs to states and local jurisdictions. The Disaster Zone Podcast Guest is Peter Gaynor, an accomplished executive with over 15 years of leadership in Emergency Management & Homeland Security at every level of government. He has led a wide variety of challenging disasters at the local, state, and federal levels. He has served as the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, FEMA Administrator, and Deputy FEMA
Administrator.

Visit https://femapete.com/ for Pete's leadership course! 

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