Keith Turi is the Assistant Administrator of the Recovery Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency. Keith was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in October of 2015 and previously served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Recovery Directorate. He has worked in the emergency management field at the federal, state, and private sector levels for more than 15 years.
As Deputy Assistant Administrator, Keith helped lead the Recovery efforts for the unprecedented 2017 Hurricane Season and California Wildfires, overseeing the approval of more than $3 billion dollars in assistance to more than 1.4 million individuals and households.
Keith has made organizational health a priority for the Recovery Directorate. To that end, he has spearheaded workforce development and internal communications initiatives within the Directorate. He also oversees the Directorate’s budget and project management systems. Since its beginning, Keith has been a strong proponent of efforts to overhaul the delivery of the Public Assistance Program, FEMA’s largest grant program, at $4.7 billion a year, to better meet the needs of applicants by streamlining and categorizing projects. The changes made as a result of this effort launched nationwide on September 12, 2017. Keith has also directed the Housing Assistance Initiative that focused on improving existing post-disaster housing solutions as well as developing new and innovative solutions to meet the needs of disaster survivors.
In 2014, Keith became Director of the FEMA Recovery Analytics and Budget Division, a division he designed and launched, to provide full service analytical capabilities and budget oversight to the nation’s federal disaster recovery programs. The division continues to improve operational efficiency and increase positive outcomes for disaster survivors and communities by informing operational and strategic decisions.
From 2011 to 2013, Keith served as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Administrator for Recovery, where he helped guide the implementation of Recovery programs during the response to dozens of disasters declared by the President, including Hurricane Sandy. His primary responsibilities in this role included policy development, resource allocation, strategic planning, workforce development, internal communication, and change management.
Prior to 2011, Keith served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Office of Policy and Program Analysis. He coordinated and managed high priority policy activities designed to achieve the FEMA mission. His leadership and clear direction assisted his staff in developing new policy, concepts, and capabilities to support federal emergency management authorities, funding, and programs.
Keith served as the national program lead for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). The HMGP is the nationwide post-disaster program that provides approximately $300 million in grants to states, tribes and local governments each year to reduce or eliminate long term risk to people and property from natural hazards. Keith took charge of the HMGP implementation during the recovery phase of Hurricane Katrina. As the FEMA liaison to the impacted states, Keith led the joint effort to find solutions to unprecedented implementation and policy challenges related to disaster recovery in the Gulf Coast region.
Keith’s extensive emergency management background includes three years with the State of Massachusetts where he worked on emergency management and mitigation issues. In the private sector, he supported a range of federal, state, and local clients on mitigation and recovery-related contracts. Keith holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a registered professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Keith lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.