Larry A. Cook

About Larry A. Cook

Emergency Manager Active Listener Serial Entrepreneur Celebrator of Awesomeness Jesus Follower Believer in You! Hello, friend! How may I serve you? Please consider joining more than 21,800 exceptional people and connect with me at c••••••••@gmail.com or l••••••••@fema.dhs.gov I would love to hear your story! I have chosen to be a LinkedIn Open Networker (LION🦁), so let\'s become better friends. I have been blessed with many great opportunities: • Solving problems! Creatively addressing client and partner needs with superior communications, reasoning, and listening skills • 25 years of progressive and varied experience in detailed research, database development, information discovery, interpretation, and organization • 13 years as an academic librarian—building, organizing, and managing 4 major university branch libraries and map collections • 10 years of professional writing and editorial experience, including newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and online publications I believe in servant leadership. I am determined to add value. I help others to be their best. I want to improve the services you produce and deeply enhance the experience of your clients.

Experience

1. Environmental Floodplain Specialist (Efsp)

   Fema

   Apr 2020 — Present · Georgetown, TX, US

   Environmental Floodplain Specialist (EFSP); Incident Management - Cadre of On-call Response and Recovery Employees (IM-CORE). Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA), Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation (EHP), EHP Readiness Branch.• Oct. 2021-present: Helping Texas communities recover from the record-breaking February 2020 Winter Storm (DR-4586). At a total cost of more than $196 billion, it is the nation\'s costliest winter storm ever. Continuing to support Public Assistance on the EHP team as the resident floodplain and wetland specialist following widespread infrastructure damage from freezing and power loss.• Sept. 2020-July 2021: Helped communities in Iowa recover from the Midwest Derecho (DR-4557) of August 2020, where mainly straight-line winds of up to 140 mph caused $11 billion in damage. Supported Public Assistance within the EHP team as the dedicated floodplain and wetland specialist. Also assisted in previous Iowa disasters (DR-4421, DR-4386, and DR-4483), and the concurrent DR-4561.• June-Sept. 2020: Editor-on-loan to the President\'s COVID Task Force for At-Risk Individuals at the US Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). At HHS request, joined the FEMA-embedded team with ASPR to support crisis action planning, situational awareness, and operational coordination.

Education

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Georgaphy; Community and Regional Planning