In August 2023, Robert Pesapane began his tenure as the Director of the Public Assistance (PA) Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Mr. Pesapane oversees FEMA’s largest grant program and is responsible for an organization of more than 2,600, including more than 1,400 disaster cadre employees. This includes personnel and facilities throughout the country from Puerto Rico to California that make up a diverse team of engineers, insurance specialists, construction specialists, cost estimation staff, legal specialists, accountants, contracting personnel, and technology specialists.
Mr. Pesapane’s responsibilities include the consistent and efficient implementation of PA, Community Disaster Loans, and the Fire Management Assistance Grant Program. The PA Division annually deploys an estimated 3,500 staff to support numerous federally declared disasters, providing support through the development, review, and approval of over 25,000 projects. These efforts help to save lives, protect property, and aid the restoration of community infrastructure affected by a federally declared incident, resulting in more than $30 billion in funding obligations (FY2020-2023). In addition, the PA Division is responsible for developing policy and guidance aimed at simplifying the program, developing a nation-wide closeout strategy to support timely closeout of projects and grants, responding to second appeals, processing grants at the Consolidated Resource Centers (CRCs), and overseeing a $2.3 billion Technical Assistance Contract and $350 million CRC Support contract.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Pesapane served as the Director of the Recovery Division for the FEMA Region 9 office in Oakland, CA from June 2019 to November 2022. In this position, he supervised the implementation of FEMA’s Public and Individual Assistance Programs, including overseeing multi-million-dollar recovery grant programs for public infrastructure, disaster survivor temporary housing, debris removal operations, and federal assistance to disaster survivors. Mr. Pesapane also served as the Deputy Federal Coordinating Officer directing operations for the COVID-19 Pandemic Response and lead the establishment of the first-in-the-nation federally supported Community Vaccination Centers, as well as mobile vaccination outreach in partnership with community and faith-based organizations.
Mr. Pesapane joined Region 9 in December 2016 as the Director of National Preparedness and the Federal Preparedness Coordinator where he led the delivery of training, exercises, continuity of operations, planning and analysis technical assistance, radiological emergency preparedness, hazardous materials preparedness, and individual and community preparedness in support of state, territorial, tribal, and local stakeholders. In addition, he has worked in the FEMA Region 1 and 3 National Preparedness Divisions, as well as FEMA Headquarters within the Response Directorate Planning Division.
Mr. Pesapane began his career in May 2007 as a regional planner for the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency where he was responsible for all-hazard emergency planning. He was later promoted to the state’s Homeland Security Exercise Officer and was responsible for ensuring that the homeland security strategy was properly exercised across all first responder disciplines. Mr. Pesapane holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Salve Regina University as well as master’s degree in international relations.