Catherine Welker currently works for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Integration Center as project lead for the development of FEMA’s National Resilience Guidance. 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. Welker 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.
Welker began work at FEMA in 2012, engaged in mass care planning where she headed a multi-state, federal agency and non-governmental organization workgroup that produced the Multi-Agency Reunification Services Plan Template that describes the roles and integration of responsibilities for successful family reunification at the local, state, and federal levels of government.
Welker 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.