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H. Lucas Hitt

H. Lucas Hitt
Office of the Administrator

Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of External Affairs

H. Lucas Hitt joined FEMA in 2021 and is the Deputy Associate Administrator of the Office of External Affairs (OEA). OEA is responsible for all aspects of FEMA’s external engagement, including with the public, the media, Congress, intergovernmental partners, and the non-profit and private sectors. As Deputy Associate Administrator, he serves as part of FEMA’s senior leadership team and advises on the development of outreach strategies and agency communication. Mr. Hitt was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2019.

Mr. Hitt brings nearly two decades of experience in public sector communications, developed across roles in government, private and non-profit sectors. From 2010 to 2021 Mr. Hitt served in various roles at the U.S. Department of Commerce, most recently as the Chief of Communications to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, one of the nation’s premiere statistical agencies. In this role, Mr. Hitt led the team responsible for internal and external communications – including dissemination of some of the nation’s most closely followed economic indicators – as well as statistical and data policy, and legislative and intergovernmental affairs.

In 2018, Mr. Hitt served as Commerce’s member of the project management team responsible for developing the Federal Data Strategy, a cross-agency priority goal of the President’s Management Agenda, and the first such effort in the United States. From 2016-2017, Mr. Hitt served as the deputy executive director of the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, overseeing the Commission’s operations and staff support and leading negotiations for the Commission on the development of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, which was signed into law in January 2019.

Prior to joining the Commerce Department, Mr. Hitt advised state and local governments, non-profits, and corporations on strategic communications, political strategy, and government affairs. He is the former member of the legislative team at the Air Force Association and a former aide to U.S. Senator Ernest “Fritz” Hollings of South Carolina. Mr. Hitt is a graduate of the College of Charleston, and native of South Carolina. He and his family reside in Washington, DC.