Tony Robinson was selected in January 2013 to serve as the first career Regional Administrator for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 6 office located in Denton, Texas. As Regional Administrator, Mr. Robinson is responsible for the direction and leadership of FEMA’s efforts in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and 68 federally-recognized Tribal Nations within this geographic area. Under Mr. Robinson’s leadership, the Region has awarded and managed over $1 billion in grant funding each fiscal year to assist Region 6 partners in building capabilities and recovering from disasters.
In Mr. Robinson’s 28 years of service with FEMA he has held various management positions and has focused on assisting federal, state, local and tribal governments prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate natural and man-made threats and hazards. Throughout his tenure, Mr. Robinson has provided leadership during Presidential Disaster Declarations including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike and Isaac, the Midwest floods of 1993, Northridge Earthquake, Tropical Storm Allison and the 2013 Oklahoma tornadoes. Most recently, he led the Region 6 coordination effort with the State of Texas on the Ebola case in Dallas and the influx of Unaccompanied Children in the Rio Grande Valley.
He served on FEMA’s National Response Teams from 1995 to 2007, supporting National Special Security Events (NSSEs) including the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2004 G8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia, and Presidentially Declared Disasters including 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, Typhoon Pongsona, Hurricanes Opal, Fran, Lili, and Charley.
Mr. Robinson has served in numerous special assignments and was appointed by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to serve as the Deputy Federal Coordinator for Super Bowl XLV in 2011, functioning as the primary liaison for federal consequence management efforts. He also served in special international assignments with the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS) in Argentina and the Border Governors Conference in Mexico, providing subject matter technical assistance on domestic emergency management operations.
Mr. Robinson completed the National Defense University Capstone Program in February 2016. He has earned numerous awards including the Medal of Merit by the Arlington, Texas Police Department in 2011, the Nancy H. Doherty Federal Employee of the Year by the Dallas-Fort Worth Federal Executive Board in 2008, and the Outstanding Achievement Award from FEMA/National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) in 2004.
Mr. Robinson began his federal career in 1985 with the Department of the Army at the Fort Belvoir Research and Development Center.