Catherine Welker

Cathy Welker works for FEMA’s Office of Resilience Strategy as project lead for development of National Resilience Guidance, which promotes a common understanding of resilience, addresses the roles of all stakeholders in resilience planning and incorporates the impacts of both shocks and chronic stressors on community and national resilience.

She previously served as Interagency Section Chief for the National Exercise Division at FEMA where she managed the Senior Officials Exercise Program, a joint preparedness initiative between the National Security Council and FEMA. Cathy also led the development of the Long-term Community Resilience Exercise Resource Guide, which provides tools, templates, and resources for developing scenario-based exercises that support community climate adaptation planning, and the Cyber Ready Community Game, a board game that promotes cyber preparedness across the whole community. Cathy joined FEMA in 2012 as a mass care planner.

Cathy started her emergency management career at the Anne Arundel County, MD Office of Emergency Management in 2005, first as an AmeriCorps Vista focused on access and functional needs planning, and later coordinating training and developing a full range of exercises in collaboration with local, regional, state and volunteer partners, earning the Master Exercise Practitioner credential in 2008. She also served two years at the American Red Cross headquarters as a planner and FEMA liaison.

Cathy resides in Annapolis, MD.