Marcus T. Coleman has been named the new director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Coleman previously held the role as an interim from 2017 to 2018 and was a special assistant to the office from 2013 to 2016.
Before this, Coleman was a program manager at FEMA for the Individual and Community Preparedness Division. There he worked to create partnerships that represented both the public and private sectors. He continued this work when he began working at the DHS Partnerships Center in 2013.
The DHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (DHS Center) fosters partnerships between government and faith-based organizations (FBOs) to increase the nation’s resilience by creating trust and developing relationships. The DHS Center seeks to build bridges across the whole community and to help overcome coordination challenges among FBOs, emergency managers and other stakeholders engaging a broad cross-section of FBOs in all stages of the disaster cycle. The DHS Center serves as a clearinghouse for information, connecting and coordinating with FBOs allowing information to be shared in both directions, informing decision-making at DHS by elevating concerns, ground truth and local situational awareness while providing feedback, updates and guidance to the faith community.
In addition to his prior experience at FEMA and the DHS Center, Coleman brings experience from the private sector, where he served as co-lead for the behavioral science and communications practice at HWC, Inc.
Coleman is a recipient of the FEMA Administrator’s award for his leadership in building a national outreach initiative that encouraged collaboration between faith leaders and first responders to develop emergency operations plans for houses of worship.
An alumni of Howard University and American University, Coleman is a member of Harvard University National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, and a Truman Project political partner.
Former DHS Partnerships Center Director (2009-2017) and advisor to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, David L. Myers said, “President Biden could not have appointed a better prepared and more capable leader than Marcus Coleman to direct the DHS Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The country and the president will be well served by Marcus’ years of experience at the Center, his expertise in emergency preparedness, and his robust network of trusted relationships with faith-based, civic, and government partners.”
