“It is my pleasure to announce that Ms. Lori A. Ehrlich is appointed as FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator,” Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell said January 20, 2022.
Region I encompasses Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and ten federally recognized Tribal Nations.
On Monday, January 31, 2022, Ms. Ehrlich was sworn in by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell at a ceremony conducted at the FEMA Region I Headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.
Prior to her appointment Ms. Ehrlich had a 14-year tenure as a Massachusetts state representative; she served in leadership roles as Chair of the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government and the Joint Committee on Export Development. She has filed and passed numerous bills into law on topics ranging from clean energy, climate change, and local journalism to animal protection and reforming restrictive employment contracts. Ehrlich was appointed to serve on a U.S. Department of Energy Commission on Energy Preparedness.
Prior to her elected service, Ehrlich founded two environmental non-profit organizations that brokered both the closure of a 1950s-era coal-burning power plant and the remediation of a contaminated drinking water supply for 80,000 local residents.
Ehrlich earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Lehigh University and was the only CPA serving in the legislature.
Ms. Ehrlich resides in Marblehead with her family and has lived in both Swampscott and Lynn over the course of her life.