MaryAnn Tierney

MaryAnn was appointed Regional Administrator in August 2010 and has 25 years of emergency management experience. Since joining FEMA, she has served in several roles throughout the Agency including Acting Regional Administrator for Region 2, Associate Administrator for Mission Support, and Acting Deputy Administrator

In addition to her permanent position, she is a qualified Federal Coordinating Officer (Type 1) and leads one of FEMA’s five National Incident Management Assistance Teams. She has deployed to several Presidentially declared disasters to support survivors and communities and has served in senior coordinating roles for the Department of Homeland Security and National Security Council.

Before coming to FEMA, MaryAnn worked in emergency management as the Assistant Commissioner for Planning and Preparedness in New York City and Director of Emergency Management in Philadelphia where she gained extensive experience coordinating large complex emergency response operations managing over 60 EOC activations and regularly deploying to large emergencies to coordinate on-scene response activities.

She has a BA from American University, a MPA from New York University, and has completed the Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security as well as the three primary professional military education courses for General and Flag Officers – Capstone, the Joint Flag Officer Warfighting Course, and Pinnacle.

MaryAnn received the DHS Secretary’s Outstanding Service Medal in 2021, the Presidential Rank Award, Distinguished Rank in 2022, and the DHS Secretary's Meritorious Service Silver Medal in 2023.

MaryAnn lives in South Philly with her husband, son, and dog; is an avid runner; and aspires to one day have a cooking show like Ina Garten.