Ms. Defrancesco is a leader and technical expert with 28 years’ experience helping people and communities integrate environmental planning and historic preservation with disaster response, recovery, and community resilience. An experienced emergency manager, she has led environmental/historic preservation response and recovery to major Type I incidents including floods, severe storms, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, landslides, and pandemics. Her experience is inclusive of Federal, state, private and academic sectors. She first joined FEMA in 2011, serving as an Environmental Specialist in Region VIII and an Environmental Advisor for the National Incident Management Assistance Team. She has held roles as the Readiness Branch Chief, Deputy Director, and Acting Director for OEHP. Ms. DeFrancesco has served as OEHP’s first Assistant Administrator since May 2023.
Prior to joining FEMA, she was an Environmental Program Manager for 10 years for an international engineering and environmental firm, a Riparian and Wetland Program Manager for University of Montana and Private Lands Coordinator for North Dakota Department of Game and Fish.