Nancy L. Ward was the Interim Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency

Federal Emergency Management Agency

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...

 (FEMA), hand-picked by her predecessor, R. David Paulison

R. David Paulison

Robert David Paulison is a former fire chief who served as the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency . Paulison was appointed by President George W. Bush on September 12, 2005 to replace the embattled Michael D. Brown, who resigned amid controversy over his handling of disaster...

 to serve in his place after retiring on January 21, 2009. Prior to her selection by Paulison, Ward served as the FEMA regional director for region IX (which serves AZ

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, CA

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

, HI

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, NV

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, CNMI

Northern Mariana Islands

The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , is a commonwealth in political union with the United States, occupying a strategic region of the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines...

, RMI

Marshall Islands

The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...

, FSM

Federated States of Micronesia

The Federated States of Micronesia or FSM is an independent, sovereign island nation, made up of four states from west to east: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae. It comprises approximately 607 islands with c...

 and American Samoa

American Samoa

American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...

). She returned to this position in May 2009 after Craig Fugate

Craig Fugate

William Craig Fugate was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009 to be the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He had been the Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. He was appointed director by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2001 and later re-appointed by Gov...

 was appointed as Administrator.

Biography

Ward had served as the regional director for region IX since October, 2006. Prior to that, she had served as the administrator of FEMA's Response and Recovery Division in the same region for almost six years.

Ward has served in two details at FEMA headquarters as the Deputy Director of the Recovery Directorate during FEMA's response and recovery operations for the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. She also served in various senior management positions in more than 20 disasters, most recently during the March and April 2006 severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides in California, and the earthquake in Hawaii. Ms. Ward has received awards for special accomplishments at FEMA, including the 2007 Award for Excellence for her leadership during the California wildfires.

Before joining FEMA, Ms. Ward was Chief of the Disaster Assistance Branch and Deputy State Coordinating Officer for the California Office of Emergency Services

California Emergency Management Agency

The California Emergency Management Agency is a California cabinet-level agency responsible for overseeing and coordinating emergency preparedness, response, recovery and homeland security activities within the state...

. She administered the state’s Natural Disaster Assistance Act

Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act is a United States federal law designed to bring an orderly and systemic means of federal natural disaster assistance for state and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to aid citizens...

program assistance provisions, which provide disaster assistance funding to local governments for state-level emergencies and disasters.