Mary Ellen Carroll was appointed Executive Director of the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) in August 2018. Carroll oversees a department of nearly 250 employees who are responsible for leading San Francisco in planning preparedness, communications, response and recovery for daily emergencies, large scale City-wide events and major disasters. Carroll brings nearly 30 years of experience in local public service to the Department of Emergency Management since beginning her public service for the city in 2005 at the Department of Public Health where she led planning and coordination efforts for San Francisco’s health systems. She then spent several years working in the Controller's Office developing business continuity plans for key City services. She also developed City-wide plans for state and federal cost recovery activities to ensure rapid recovery from disasters and reimbursement for disaster damages. And just prior to leading DEM, Carroll served as the Director of Emergency Planning and Security for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, where she supervised all security and emergency management operations. Since becoming DEM Executive Director Carroll has overseen numerous mayoral declared emergencies, beginning with the Kincade Fire in 2019 when San Francisco open a shelter in St. Mary’s Cathedral to help our north bay neighbors evacuating the fire, to the COVID-19 pandemic response, and most recently the Tenderloin Emergency Initiative. Overall, since becoming DEM Executive Director San Francisco has experienced unprecedented emergencies including heat waves, terrible air quality, a day when SF looked like it was transported to Mars, and of course, the pandemic. Being a woman in emergency management is not common. Especially being the executive director of an emergency management department, but Carroll focusses on multi-tasking problem solving while trusting the process and system of emergency management, all the while keeping an open mind to the unprecedented and never-been-done approach managing dire situations. Carroll holds a B.A. in International Studies from George Washington University and a Master of Arts in Urban Studies from Virginia Tech.
