As the former Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Office of Emergency Management and Chief Disaster Officer for the American Red Cross in Greater New York, Kelly McKinney, PE, CBCP has operated at the center of America's most consequential disasters for 25 years - from the World Trade Center to Superstorm Sandy to COVID-19. He has served as Deputy Commissioner at the NYC Office of Emergency Management, Chief Disaster Officer for the American Red Cross in Greater New York, and as a leader in New York City's post-9/11 environmental health response.
Currently he is Vice President of Emergency Management and Enterprise Resilience at NYU Langone Health, where he leads crisis preparedness and response for a $16B academic medical center.
A nationally recognized voice on crisis leadership, McKinney is the author of Moment of Truth: The Nature of Catastrophes and How to Prepare for Them and a frequent op-ed contributor to outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and New York Daily News. He teaches graduate-level crisis management at the NYU School of Professional Studies and lectures at the FEMA National Emergency Management Executive Academy.
McKinney is a FEMA Vanguard Fellow, an ex-officio board member of the American Red Cross in Greater New York, and a board member of the All-Hazards Consortium. He served on the Emergency Response Subcommittee of the Mayor-Elect Mamdani Transition Committee in 2025. He holds an MPA from Columbia University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas.
