Deborah Siefert

Deb is a top senior disaster management consultant with over 20 years of experience managing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. For the past 15 years, she’s concentrated on CDBG-Disaster Recovery and CDBG-Mitigation programs across the United States. Along with her legal background, Deb is an expert in program design that navigates complex federal requirements to deliver compliant housing, infrastructure, and economic revitalization programs.

Since Hurricane Katrina, Deb has worked with multiple states to design and implement disaster recovery programs funded with CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT grants. She assisted New York City’s Office of Management and Budget with a $4 billion CDBG-DR fund following Hurricane Sandy. She also implemented CDBG-DR recovery for smaller communities such as the City of Minot, North Dakota, and helped design and implement the Boulder County Collaborative in Colorado.

Deb specializes in program start-up. She assists communities from action plan development and program design to administrative and personnel needs. She’s successfully led and managed teams of disaster professionals dealing with rehabilitation and reconstruction, buyout, uniform relocation assistance, and other optional relocation services.

Deb helps communities design and implement major infrastructure plans to withstand future impacts from natural disasters. She worked closely with Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) following Hurricane Sandy to develop a coordinated match approach for FEMA PA and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. She followed the same models of success for the Boulder County Collaborative in Colorado. She continues to create and support major disaster recovery programs across the nation.