Edward Thomas

Ed Thomas is a floodplain manager, a disaster response and recovery specialist, and an attorney. His primary concern is the prevention of misery to disaster victims, the public purse, and to the environment. Hazard mitigation and climate adaptation through the law is his chosen method of accomplishing this goal.

Thomas is the president of the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association; and an elected member of both the Fellows of the American Bar Association (ABA) Foundation; and the Council of the State and Local Government Section of the ABA. He is chair of the hazards sub-committee of the land use planning and zoning committee of the ABA. In addition, Thomas serves on the advisory committee of the Natural Hazards Center of the University of Colorado and is an active member of the American Planning Association, the American Society of Adaptation Professionals, the Association of State Wetland Managers and the American Geophysical Union.

During his 35 year career with HUD and FEMA, Thomas worked on about two hundred disasters and emergencies, serving as the President's on scene representative, the Federal Coordinating Officer, dozens of times. He is a frequent lecturer on emergency management issues, especially the constitutional and legal aspects of floodplain regulations. He has authored dozens of publications and articles on various disaster related issues. Thomas is a graduate of Fordham College and a magna cum laude graduate of the New England School of Law, in Boston. He manages a private practice of Law, Edward A. Thomas Esq., LLC and lives with his wife in the floodplain of beautiful Marina Bay in Quincy, Massachusetts.