R. David Paulison

Robert David Paulison (b. 1947) was a firefighter who is currently serving as the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Paulison was appointed by President George W. Bush on September 12, 2005 to replace the embattled Michael D. Brown, who resigned amid controversy over his handling of disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Prior to his appointment, Paulison was perhaps best known nationally for his 2003 advisory regarding household items (including duct tape and plastic sheeting) to have on hand in case of terrorist attack.

Paulison was born in 1947 in Miami, Florida. He attended North Miami Senior High School and earned his bachelor's degree from Florida Atlantic University, and later completed a program at John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University for government service executives. After beginning his career as a firefighter, Paulison rose through the ranks, and became fire chief of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue in 1992. He was subsequently named fire chief of the year for Florida in 1993, and has thirty years of experience as a firefighter. In addition, he was also president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

During his time as a firefighter, Paulison was responsible for the cleanup after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and after the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 over the Everglades in 1996.

On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush announced that he would appoint Paulison (a Democrat) as the head of the United States Fire Administration, now a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Directorate of Preparedness. The nomination was sent to the U.S. Senate on October 16, 2001. Paulison was confirmed unanimously on November 30, 2001.

It was not in this role, rather he had also been made Director of FEMA's Preparedness Division, that Paulison released an advisory on February 10, 2003 recommending households keep several common items on hand in case of a biological, chemical or radiological terrorist attack. Among these: three days' worth of water and food, emergency supplies, and plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal windows and doors. The latter led to a much-publicized rush on hardware stores. This overshadowed another of the advisory's statements (one that unknowingly predicted conditions in the Gulf Coast 19 months later): in an emergency, most people "are going to be on their own for possibly 48 to 72 hours."

Later in 2003, Bush appointed Paulison director of the newly created National Preparedness Division of the Emergency Preparedness & Response Directorate. This distinctly DHS Directorate, was later made a part of FEMA again (08/2007) almost two years after Paulison became FEMA's acting "chief", Department of Homeland Security.

R. David Paulison and his public information office have been very careful to make it appear that he was directly in charge of the Federal governments "preparedness" for a disaster like Katrina for only a short one year period of time leading up to the storm. In reality, he was responsible for both FEMA and then DHS preparedness for three solid years leading up to Katrina.

In April 2006, Acting FEMA Director and U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison was nominated to become the first DHS Under Secretary for Federal Emergency Management in charge of FEMA.

In May 2006, R. David Paulison was unanimously confirmed and sworn in as the first Under Secretary for Federal Emergency Management.