ICF Vice President of Disaster Management John Rabin – Staying the Course while Looking to Leverage new State and Local Partners

Continuing to build out its depth and industry expertise with cutting-edge engagement capabilities to help organizations solve their most complex challenges. ICF recently announced that former FEMA Assistant Administrator John Rabin had joined the company as Vice President of Disaster Management. OS AI caught up with John to learn more about his 20+ years of operational experience, including the last 12 at FEMA; his ongoing focus amidst change; and the opportunity for potential partners. 

Depth of Perspective 

I’ve been working in the world of emergency services since I was in high school, outside of New York City. I started as a 16-year-old riding ambulances, and spent the next 30+ years riding ambulances and fire engines. 

I joined FEMA in 2012, where I initially worked in preparedness—helping state and local governments build the capabilities and capacities needed to address their specific risks. I also worked on several large-scale exercises and set the guidance for FEMA’s premier training facilities—The Emergency Management Institute and the Center for Domestic Preparedness. During my time in preparedness, I deployed to many disasters, including Hurricane Sandy, Pacific storms, tornadoes, and floods. 

In 2017, I took a detail to New York City and ran FEMA’s Region 2 office, which was responsible for all of FEMA’s efforts in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I was there for both Hurricane’s Irma and Maria and led the initial response to both disasters. After my detail to Region 2, I took over FEMA’s Field Operations Directorate where I was responsible for the training, readiness, and leadership of the 14,000 members of FEMA’s disaster workforce. 

My last position was running FEMA’s Response Directorate, where I was responsible for the delivery of a coordinated federal emergency management response to state, local, tribal, and territorial communities impacted by natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other emergencies. This included the leadership and management of the National Urban Search and Rescue System, Disaster Emergency Communications, the National Response Coordination Center, and numerous national planning, warning, and reporting organizations.   

Supporting Impactful Work 

I loved my job at FEMA. The mission, the people, and the work on big, strategic problems made me look forward to going to work every day. I also realized that the most impactful work was being done at the state and local level, and ICF does some of that impactful work. What most excited me about joining was the people—everyone I met during the hiring process was smart and compassionate and cared about the work and the company. ICF’s culture of smart people, that work hard and care, was what I was seeking. 

Enhancing Leadership in Disaster Management 

I am looking forward to helping ICF continue to enhance its leadership in disaster management business. Coming out of FEMA as a Senior Executive, I’m well versed in the strategic goals and outcomes that FEMA wants to achieve. I have also been involved in every major disaster since 2012, including lots of time in the field, so I understand the challenges of response and recovery from the implementation perspective.  

Lastly, I am looking forward to expanding our offerings in the response phase of incidents. ICF has a strong background in recovery and, during incidents, the line between response and recovery continues to blur. From my perspective, response should set up an effective recovery, and I want to support ICF’s involvement during both of these phases. 

The Nation-State Threat

One area I am very interested in is the Nation State threat, particularly the wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the rising threat of China both militarily and economically. Our nation-state adversaries continue to conduct attacks into our infrastructure. For example, we know that the Chinese have been in our Critical Infrastructure – Volt Typhoon. 

The challenge for the Emergy Management community is planning for these threats. Not only do we have to be ready for cyber-attacks or sabotage, we have to be ready for those incidents when we are most vulnerable – during a response to a disaster. What’s more, we also need to plan how we’ll conduct life-saving and life-sustaining missions with limited Department of Defense resources. Our entities—Federal, State, local, territorial, and tribal—rely on the Department of Defense for a lot. If we need to surge forces to NATO, the Pacific, or the Middle East, the implications to national incidents would be significant. 

An Opportunity for State and Local Expertise 

I would be interested in hearing from a few types of partners—the first would be those that have experience in planning and coordinating responses at the state and local levels. We have a tremendous amount of expertise in recovery and mitigation, and as we close that gap—or really, merge response and recovery—working with experienced partners would be helpful. 

Additionally, I would like to hear from folks who would be open to discussing the current threat environment. The more we talk about it, the better we can identify ways to mitigate, counter threats, and operate in the environment.  

Staying the Course 

We are in some changing times, whether it’s the increasing number and strength of storms, the reality of the nation-state threat, or the changing Federal Government. However, the Emergency Management community needs to remain focused—on taking care of people, each other, and being prepared. 

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