Carlos J. Castillo
Assistant Administrator, Disaster Assistance Directorate
Carlos J. Castillo became Assistant Administrator for the Disaster Assistance Directorate in July 2007. He came to FEMA after more than 25 years as a firefighter and local emergency manager.
In his previous position, as the Assistant Fire Chief for Technical Services in Miami-Dade, Fla., he managed the divisions of Fire Prevention, Emergency Medical Services and Training & Safety. In this role he also served as the Incident Commander during the 2007 Super Bowl. Mr. Castillo also worked as the Director of the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency Management, where he managed the response during seven hurricane activations and oversaw Domestic Preparedness and Community Outreach and the county’s participation in the Urban Areas Security Initiative program.
Mr. Castillo also has served in other Assistant Fire Chief positions, including Assistant Fire Chief for Operations, where he worked closely with FEMA as the Incident Support Team Leader for FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) response at the Pentagon following the September 11 attack. He also worked with FEMA earlier in his career as part of the Incident Support Team that responded to the Oklahoma City bombing. He is a FEMA US&R Incident Support Team Working Group member and a working group member for development and implementation of FEMA’s US&R Response System. He was appointed to Florida’s Domestic Security Advisory Panel, created following the September 11 attacks to provide advisory assistance to the governor, the legislature and other entities.
Mr. Castillo earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Barry University and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Florida International University. He has studied at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in the “Crisis Management: Exercising Leadership in Extraordinary Times” program.
Last Modified: Thursday, 26-Jul-2007 10:48:40 EDT