For a quarter-century, Ed Conley worked for FEMA, passionately leading teams around the globe in response to some of the most significant disasters in history.
Conley has been on the scene from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, from Oklahoma tornadoes to Montana wildfires and oil spills in the Gulf to California earthquakes.
After the 1997 Grand Forks Flood, he managed the area field office. Grand Forks' re-emergence after the flood is cited as an international model for successful recovery. When he departed the office, the city designated an "Ed Conley Day."
He served as a national spokesperson in New York City following Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and the federal representative to the Oglala Sioux Tribal Nation during an emergency housing mission in 2015. In recognition of his reputation for crisis management, he was appointed as a U.S. Liaison Representative with NATO for Civil Emergency Planning.
In addition to FEMA, Conley has helped manage national incidents for the Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Coast Guard.
He has been an instructor at the U.S. Center for Domestic Preparedness and the National Emergency Training Center and was co-director of the FEMA Center for Excellence in Community Relations. Before joining FEMA, he spent six years on the National Ski Patrol.
Conley graduated as a history major from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His home base is Seattle, Washington, where he enjoys the ocean and the mountains.
