Samantha Medlock serves as the Assistant Administrator for Resilience Strategy, overseeing policy, doctrine, strategy, and evaluation efforts for the entire FEMA Resilience organization. The mission of Resilience is to prepare communities, reduce suffering, and speed recovery. The Resilience organization includes several programs to meet this mission including risk information, planning and capacity building, federal insurance, and risk reduction investments.
Prior to joining executive service, Ms. Medlock was senior counsel to the House of Representatives Select Committee on the Climate Crisis during the 116th and 117th Congresses, leading work on resilience, adaptation, and preparedness, including managing the Committee’s science, public health, infrastructure, housing, finance, and national security portfolios. She joined the Committee from a private sector role in climate risk management, insurance, and finance.
Ms. Medlock served as a senior advisor in the White House Office of Management and Budget and deputy director in the Council on Environmental Quality, coordinating resilience policy across the Executive Office of the President and the Administration, modernizing federal flood policy, and steering partnerships with local leaders and the private sector. Before her White House appointments, she was policy counsel for the Association of State Floodplain Managers and served at the local and regional levels of government in the State of Texas.
Ms. Medlock has more than 25 years of experience in land use and disaster law and policy, and has testified in Congress on flood risk, levee safety, and resilient recovery from disasters. She is a recipient of the Army Commander’s Award for Public Service for her service on the National Committee on Levee Safety created by Congress after Hurricane Katrina. In addition to advancing U.S. domestic resilience policy and practice, she has participated in international technical exchanges with partners in the E.U., Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Ms. Medlock has held multiple posts in academia, including with the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and the Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law, where she launched new curricula on emerging national security threats. She is a certified floodplain manager and holds a Juris Doctor degree from Vermont Law School and a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude from Texas Woman’s University.