FEMA Deputy Administrator for Resilience Daniel Kaniewski is resigning from the agency to pursue a private-sector opportunity.
BuzzFeed first reported that Kaniewski submitted his resignation Thursday morning and his last day is today.
“The reason I came into government was to make resilience and building a culture of preparedness my top priority,” Kaniewski told BuzzFeed, saying he “will be staying in DC and will continue to hopefully advance these issues from the outside.”
Kaniewski, who was given the HSToday Excellence in Outreach award in December, has led all of FEMA’s pre-disaster programs including those aimed at preparing individuals and communities for disasters, enhancing capabilities of state and local response agencies, strengthening vulnerable infrastructure, insuring against catastrophic losses, and supporting continuity of operations/government. He was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Sept. 14, 2017, as FEMA’s second-ranking official.
Prior to joining FEMA he led the Global Resilience practice at AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe risk modeling firm. He was also a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Cyber & Homeland Security.
He previously led the resilience mission area at a U.S. Department of Homeland Security research and development center. Earlier he was Assistant Vice President and Deputy Director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University.
Kaniewski was Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Senior Director for Response Policy in the George W. Bush Administration, where he managed over 200 presidential disaster declarations.
Prior to his White House service he co-founded the Homeland Security Policy Institute. He earlier held positions at FEMA, the Congressional Fire Services Institute, and on Capitol Hill. Dan began his career in homeland security as a firefighter/paramedic.
Kaniewski has served on the adjunct faculty of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, on the District of Columbia Homeland Security Commission, and as a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from George Washington University, an M.A. in National Security Studies from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and a B.S. magna cum laude in Emergency Medical Services from George Washington University.
