WASHINGTON, D.C., March 16, 2021 – Disaster Tech, the leader in decision science technologies for emergency management, today announced that Rich Serino, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Senior Advisor, MIT Urban Risk Lab and former Deputy Administrator of FEMA, has joined the company's Board of Directors. Serino brings to Disaster Tech's Board more than 40 years of experience in disaster preparedness, response, recovery, mass casualty incidents, and leadership and innovation in government. Serino joins Disaster Tech's Board as billion-dollar weather and climate disasters accelerate globally, accelerating the demand for innovation in emergency management.
"We're proud to welcome Rich Serino to Disaster Tech's Board of Directors. Rich is one of the most accomplished and respected experts in emergency management, and I'm thrilled to partner with him. He has a proven track record of building, sustaining, and improving FEMA's capacity to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards," said Sean Griffin, CEO, and co-founder of Disaster Tech. "As a Board member, Rich's unparalleled passion and deep expertise in disaster preparedness will be invaluable as we continue to build our user-centric platform and enhance our solution so that emergency managers can save more lives, money, and time."
Serino currently serves as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which he joined in 2014. Prior to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Serino was the former Deputy Administrator of FEMA. Over his esteemed career, he has received more than thirty-five local, national, and international awards for public service and innovation, including the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative's (NPLI) Meta-Leader of the Year Award for his work in the response to multiple disasters and Super Storm Sandy. Before FEMA, Serino served as Chief of Boston EMS and Assistant Director of Health at the Boston Public Health Commission. In this role, he bolstered the city's response plans for major emergencies, including chemical, biological, and radiological attacks. Serino also led citywide planning for H1N1 influenza.
“Disaster Tech is removing barriers within the emergency management industry by providing advanced technologies that enable practitioners to make better informed decisions that ultimately lead to saving more lives and building resilient communities,” said Serino. “I look forward to joining the Board and supporting the Disaster Tech team as they enter the next phase of growth.”
Serino attended Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government 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, Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Serino joins Disaster Tech's distinguished Board, which also includes retired Air Force colonel and former FEMA Region VIII Administrator, Lee dePalo; Professor of data science and co-founder of the Crisis and Innovation Lab at Indiana University, Dr. David Wild; Chief Operations Officer (COO) for First Data, Christine Larsen and others.
About Disaster Tech
Disaster Tech, a veteran-owned public benefit company, offers data science and decision science technologies for situational awareness, operational coordination, and risk management before, during, and after disasters. Disaster Tech’s goal is to save lives, protect the environment, and build resilient communities by providing the most sophisticated, advanced analytics and distributed high-performance computing platform on the planet. Find more at https://www.disastertech.com/
Disaster Tech Media Contact
Emily McClellan
Emily@disastertech.com
