D A Christian
Public Assistance Section Chief
California Governor's Office of Emergency Services

D.A. Christian graduated from Florida State University in 1983, with a degree in public administration. Since then, Mr. Christian has taken extensive training in the field of emergency management, with a specialization in emergency medical operations, and radiation accident response and recovery.

D.A. Christian has worked in state and local government for approximately 15 years. Mr. Christian began working with the Florida Division of Emergency Management after college, serving as the South Florida regional coordinator for all disaster operations. Mr. Christian then served as the assistant director of emergency management for the Florida Keys, where he specialized in preparedness, training and response to accidents at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power facility.

In 1994, Mr. Christian joined the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) managing a portion of the Northridge earthquake recovery. In 1996, he was promoted to Public Assistance Section Chief, managing state and federal disaster recovery programs statewide. In this capacity, Mr. Christian operates a Section consisting of twelve managers and approximately sixty staff, half located in Sacramento, and half in Pasadena. Since 1994, the Public Assistance Section has conducted more than 15,000 site inspections of disaster damaged facilities, and has secured nearly $5,000,000,000 in federal and state funding for thousands of cities, counties, special districts, state agencies and private-non-profit entities. Mr. Christian’s philosophy of administration has centered on the elimination of unnecessary duplication of effort between FEMA and OES, increasing accountability for program decisions, and improving customer service.