Curtis Brown has been promoted to the position of State Coordinator of Emergency Management at the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). He most recently served as the Chief Deputy State Coordinator.
Brown has a wealth of homeland security and emergency management policy experience at the federal, state, and local levels. Previously, he served as Regional Emergency Management Administrator for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, professional staff on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, and Senior Special Assistant to the Governor in the Office of Commonwealth Preparedness.
He also is co-founder of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management (I-DIEM) a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the field of emergency management and promoting the application of equitable practices to improve disaster outcomes for vulnerable communities.
Brown received a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Radford University, Master of Public Administration from Virginia Tech, and Master of Arts in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a graduate of the Virginia Executive Institute, Commonwealth Management Institute, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Emergency Management Executive Academy.
Brown succeeds Dr. Jeff Stern, who led VDEM for six years before joining FEMA as Superintendent of the Emergency Management Institute. Stern said Brown has been a “most honorable colleague – disaster tested and ready to lead VDEM right from day one”.
