The Senate on Thursday confirmed Pete Gaynor to be deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Gaynor, who previously served as the director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency and most recently as the director of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, was nominated to the post in June.
“With the 2018 hurricane season fully underway, Pete’s confirmation could not have come at a more critical time,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement today. “His experience as both a state and local emergency manager, combined with more than two decades of service in the United States Marine Corps, make him an invaluable addition to the administrator’s leadership team at FEMA.”
“Deputy Administrator Gaynor will immediately get to work helping the many Americans recently devastated by the destruction of Hurricane Michael across the East Coast,” she added. “I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead to support the men and women of FEMA as they carry out their missions.”
Gaynor spent over two decades in the United States Marine Corps as an infantry officer. He served as the executive officer responsible for the security of Camp David, and as the head of Plans, Policy, & Operations at Marine Corps Headquarters during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He received a B.A. in history from Rhode Island College and a M.A. in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
