President Joe Biden has appointed Thomas Sivak to serve as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Regional Administrator for Region 5.
Regional Administrators lead FEMA’s 10 regional offices and coordinate directly with the FEMA Administrator to support state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) communities in their geographic area of operations delivering frontline services across the spectrum of preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery, and continuity programs. The Regional Administrators play a critical role in delivering timely, efficient, effective, and accessible federal assistance.
Region 5 serves Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Thomas Sivak serves as the Deputy Director of Operations for Cook County, Illinois Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security. Sivak’s key areas of emphasis are preparedness, planning, logistical response capabilities, information sharing and operational coordination across 135 municipalities. Throughout Sivak’s 15-year emergency management and public safety career, he has proudly served both private and public sector organizations. He is skilled in and recognized as a subject matter expert in safety, security, emergency management, disaster relief, pandemic response, and coordination.
Throughout his career, Sivak has served in leadership roles during major Emergency Operations Center and incident management activations as a result of major incidents and events. These include the 2012 Super Bowl, 2018 Mercy Hospital Active Shooter Incident, COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest in May and August 2020, and Presidential Election Consequence Management. Sivak is a Certified Emergency Manager through the International Association of Emergency Managers and a graduate of the Executive Leadership Program at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. He holds a Master of Science in Public Service Leadership from DePaul University, a Bachelors of Arts degree from Marquette University, and is originally from East Cleveland, Ohio.