Rich Serino

The Honorable Richard Serino is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, a member of the Board of Directors for Airbnb.org, and Senior Advisor to the Markle Foundation for AIDE (Artificial Intelligence for Disasters and Emergencies). He was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 8th Deputy Administrator in October 2009, serving until 2014. Prior to that appointment, he served as Chief of Boston EMS and Assistant Director of the Boston Public Health Commission.

As Chief of Boston EMS, Mr. Serino served as Incident Commander for more than 35 mass casualty incidents and for all of Boston’s major planned events. During his tenure at FEMA, he oversaw more than 60 federally declared disasters, including Midwest flooding; the EF-5 tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri; the April 25-28, 2011 tornado outbreak—the worst continuous outbreak for tornadoes in U.S. history, with 368 confirmed tornadoes; tsunami destruction; and numerous hurricanes, including Hurricane Sandy. He was on scene at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings as the highest-ranking Department of Homeland Security official present. Under his leadership, FEMA launched several key initiatives, including FEMA Corps, FEMA Stat, the FEMA Think Tank, a detailed budgetary process, the creation of a Chief Innovation Officer position, and a Disaster Workforce and Workplace Transformation effort.

Mr. Serino has served on multiple National Academy of Medicine committees. He chaired the NFPA 3000, Standard for an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response (ASHER) Program, Committee, and was one of the initial developers of the “Stop the Bleed” program.

Mr. Serino attended Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program in 2000, completed the Kennedy School’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative in 2005, and graduated from the Executive Leadership Program at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security. He has received numerous local, national, and international awards for heroism, leadership, and innovation.