Ms. Katherine Fox joined FEMA Region 8 as the Deputy Regional Administrator in July 2022. In this position, her responsibilities include oversight for the operational aspects of regional disaster response, recovery, mitigation, and preparedness activities in FEMA Region 8, which includes the states of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming along with 29 federally recognized tribal nations.
Prior to assuming the role of Deputy Regional Administrator, Ms. Fox was the Assistant Administrator for Mitigation within the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA). In this role, she oversaw the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program, Flood Mitigation Assistance grants, and the National Flood Insurance Program’s Floodplain Management Program and Community Rating System. Ms. Fox also oversaw FIMA’s Disaster Operations and led the Hazard Mitigation Disaster Workforce Cadre.
Before joining FIMA, Ms. Fox was the Director of the FEMA National Preparedness Assessment Division, where she focused on a range of analytic efforts to evaluate the nation’s preparedness posture, such as publishing the annual National Preparedness Report, evaluating state preparedness capabilities through the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment and Stakeholder Preparedness Reviews, and supporting the FEMA Continuous Improvement Program. Ms. Fox also served as the Acting Assistant Administrator for the FEMA National Preparedness Directorate (NPD). In this capacity, she set NPD’s strategic priorities to build and validate National preparedness capabilities through national risk analysis, training more than two million first responders annually, conducting over 100 exercises, and researching individual and community preparedness actions. Subsequently, she supported the FEMA Recovery Directorate with several critical needs during the response to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.
Ms. Fox also has served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Management and Performance Improvement in the FEMA Office of Policy and Program Analysis, in Branch Chief roles within the Individual Assistance Division, and as Senior Policy Advisor and Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Recovery Directorate. Before she joined FEMA in 2008, Ms. Fox worked at the White House Office of Management and Budget as the FEMA Resource Analyst in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Ms. Fox holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Oglethorpe University.