Chief Donna Black joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency as the deputy administrator for the U.S. Fire Administration.
Chief Black has been active in the fire service for over 27 years. She began her career in 1997 as a volunteer, working her way through the ranks (as both a paid and volunteer firefighter), culminating in 2006 when she was selected as the fire chief for the town of Duck, North Carolina.
Chief Black served as the president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, during which time she participated in the inaugural U.S. Fire Administrator’s Summit on Fire Prevention and Control in 2022, and has since worked to champion #FireServiceOneVoice collaboration efforts for the National Fire Strategy. Chief Black also delivered testimony on the impact of wildfires at the 2022 and 2023 U.S. Fire Administrator’s Summit Roundtables.
Chief Black’s credentials include a Bachelor of Science degree from Ithaca College and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Georgia. She graduated from the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program in 2012 and holds a Chief Fire Officer designation from the Center for Public Safety Excellence. Chief Black also has a post-graduate Certificate of Community Preparedness and Disaster Management from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.