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Scott Wells, a nationally recognized speaker on issues associated with emergency management and response operations, will discuss “Katrina: An Insider’s Perspective” in a brown bag presentation at noon Thursday, March 22, in room 200 of Acopian Engineering Center.
From 1999 to 2006, Wells served as a federal coordinating officer (FCO) for the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency. As an FCO, he was appointed by the president for federally declared disasters and served as the president’s representative at such major disaster sites as the Columbia Space Shuttle Recovery Operation, Tropical Storm Allison in Texas, and many other hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and ice storms throughout the United States and its territories in addition to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Louisiana.
Prior to that Wells spent 10 years in the Pentagon working for the Department of Defense. While assigned to the Pentagon he had several assignments related to providing military support to civil authorities, working closely with many federal departments and agencies, but most notably the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Veterans Administration and FEMA. In this capacity he was involved in more than 100 disasters at the national level including natural disasters such as Hurricane Andrew, the North Ridge earthquake, mid-west floods of 1993, and law enforcement activities such as the Oklahoma City bombing, Waco siege, Ruby Ridge incident, Cuban/Haitian immigration crisis, and classified terrorist events. Wells was also a key player in national special security events, such as the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and Presidential inaugurations, and special project, such as the Nunn-Lugar Domestic Preparedness Program and the Y2K transition. As a member of national-level Y2K team Wells played a pivotal role in developing the architecture for the response to a potential Y2K terrorist threat. During this time with the Department of Defense, he also served as the military liaison to FEMA and as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Director of FEMA.
He holds a M.A. in systems management from Golden Gate University and a B.A. in biology from Wake Forest University.