Deanne Bennett Criswell[1] 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.[2] She was previously the commissioner of the New York City Emergency Management Office.[3][4]
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.[5][6][7]
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.[2] 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.[8]
Her nomination to be the next FEMA administrator was submitted to the United States Senate on February 22, 2021.[1] 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.[9][2]
Criswell reintroduced the FEMA flag on April 12, 2022, for public display.