Kristin Leahy Fontenot currently serves as the Assistant Administrator of FEMA's Risk Analysis, Planning and Information Directorate (RAPID). In this role, she works to develop and deliver robust tools, technologies, data, and information necessary to help states, communities, and local partners and make informed risk-based decisions that save lives and reduce financial damage from natural and manmade disasters. RAPID’s programs and support services include a broad portfolio such as the community engagement and engineering expertise necessary to deliver critical flood risk mapping nationwide, oversight of the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) process, delivery of Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training and capability building, and much more. Across RAPID’s portfolio, including virtual and online training, simulations, webinars and instructor-led events, over 1 million members of the public were reached in 2024.
With nearly 20 years of experience, Fontenot has dedicated her career to navigating the complex aspects of community development, disaster recovery, resilience and capability building and finding ways to ensure communities have the tools, technologies, and information to make informed decisions that improve their ability to thrive. Prior to serving as RAPID’s Assistant Administrator, Ms. Fontenot worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as their Director for the Office of Environment and Energy.
Fontenot previously worked at FEMA as the Director of the Office of Environment and Historic Preservation, where she regularly engaged in the national and local discussions regarding environmental and cultural resources challenges associated with disaster preparedness, recovery, and mitigation. While at FEMA, she grew the agency’s environmental program to rise to the challenges of increasing disaster frequency, supported agency efforts to increase community resilience, and supported the response and recovery of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the OEHP receipt of DHS’s Environmental Cutting-Edge Environmental Program of the Year in 2021.