Darrin Punchard
Darrin Punchard is a certified planner and floodplain manager who has spent his entire career working with local communities to assess and minimize their risk to natural hazards. He has more than a decade of applied experience in hazard mitigation planning with particular expertise in GIS-based risk assessment and land use planning. Since 2001, he has served as a private consultant to FEMA, state agencies, regional councils, local governments, tribes, universities, and school districts across the United States, assessing and reducing their vulnerability to natural and man-made hazards. Punchard was responsible for preparing some of the nation’s first FEMA-approved local hazard mitigation plans and has helped more than 500 counties, cities, and towns gain compliance under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. He has also been involved in the long-term recovery and redevelopment of some of the nation’s worst natural disasters including floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires.
Punchard’s public service career includes serving as the North Carolina State Hazard Mitigation Officer, where he provided technical assistance and training on mitigation planning and sustainable development practices to local governments and businesses. His career began in Florida, where he worked as a local hazard mitigation planner for Alachua County and then, later, as a state mitigation planner for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. He earned a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Florida, and a bachelor’s degree in coastal zone management from the University of Rhode Island.