Glenn Woodard Stepping Down From FEMA Post; Helped Mold Mission To Aid Disaster Victims
Release Date: September 29, 2000
Release Number: R4-00-14
ATLANTA, Ga. -- Glenn C. Woodard Jr. steps down after 31 years of public service this month when he formally retires from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the organization he spent two decades helping mold, hone, and perfect in order to deliver vital emergency help to hundreds of thousands of distressed disaster victims.
Most of Woodard's notable career was spent with FEMA, but his archival history includes a decade in sensitive capacities with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Insurance Administration (FIA).
It was at FIA, later to be included under the FEMA umbrella, that Woodard helped frame much of the federally backed flood insurance program that today protects the homes and businesses of more than 4.2 million American flood insurance policyholders. It is notable that half that total falls within the eight-state region he now directly serves. It was during the implementation of the NFIP that he became a leading proponent of and expert in flood plain management in riverine and coastal areas.
A native of Oriental, N.C., Woodard is an alumnus of East Carolina University and attended the Graduate School of City Planning at Georgia Tech. His education covers business, geography and city planning.
Notable achievements during his years of public service include membership on the task force that created the Community Rating System for the National Flood Insurance Program. It is that program that governs national flood insurance rates and which has ensured an average annual flood policy cost of only $350. Similar coverage with a private carrier would cost far more, if it were available at all. Further, claims are paid from policyholder premiums, not from the public treasury.
In addition, Woodard served for five years as chairman of the Regional Assistance Committee, the FEMA-led team of federal agencies responsible for assuring off-site community safety around nuclear power plants. He is presently chairman of the Regional Interagency Steering Committee, a position he has held for 10 years.
The Committee is the organization responsible, via FEMA's leadership, for implementing the Federal Response Plan, the vehicle that coordinates and provides federal disaster assistance and resources to individuals and state and local governments.
As director of Response and Recovery for FEMA, Woodard has been responsible for coordinating disaster assistance to untold hundreds of thousands whose homes and businesses have been ravaged by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and destructive winter storms. These include Hurricanes Opal, Bonnie, Fran and Floyd, plus devastating floods in Kentucky and Alabama, and the F-5 tornado-the most destructive of all such storms-in Alabama in 1998.
His work has brought high praise from colleagues, including President Clinton, FEMA Director James Lee Witt, and Regional Director John Copenhaver. Witt called Woodard "a tough act to follow," and singled out the job Woodard did last year as Federal Coordinating Officer, which required coordinating all federal help with state and local emergency managers in administering the delivery of $1.2 billion in disaster relief to wind-and-flood wracked North Carolina in Hurricane Floyd's wake.
"Perhaps most memorable of all was his leadership in FEMA's first home buyout," Witt added, citing the 1980 residential acquisition as the beginning of the agency's much-applauded efforts to stop what had become a ceaseless cycle of damage-repair that long has afflicted structures in low-lying areas.
The cost-effective program of which Woodard was a pioneer provides greater public health and safety for residents of flooded areas, while eliminating millions of dollars in repetitive claims for flood damage.
"Glenn is a true professional," said Copenhaver. "He knows what must be done even before it is evident to others, and the generation of experience he has acquired makes his value without equal."
Both Witt and Copenhaver predict Woodard's career is simply the closing of one chapter and the beginning of another. "I know he'll make good use of his many talents," Witt said.
Woodard joined FEMA upon its creation in 1979 after several years with HUD and as regional director of the Federal Insurance Administration when both it and the National Flood Insurance Program were under HUD. His early experience includes serving as a city and regional planner with the Coosa Valley Area Planning and Development Commission in Rome, Ga., and with the Georgia State Planning Bureau.
He holds membership in the American Planning Association, the American Institute of Certified Planners, and the Georgia Planning Association, of which his is a past president.
Much of his FEMA experience has been acquired in the field and at disaster sites during service as federal coordinating officer for disaster response and recovery efforts in various states.
He has two children, a son Ryan, who is pursuing a doctorate in physics at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and a daughter Cara, who lives in the Atlanta area with her husband, Dr. Chris Zenker, and children Holden, 4, and Erin, 2. After retirement, Woodard said he plans to "relax, travel, and consider second career options."
Last Modified: Tuesday, 18-Nov-2003 15:42:14