
MONTANA RECOVERY RESOURCES SYMPOSIUM
Fort Harrison National Guard Facility 1900 William Street Helena, MT 59602
Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Maona Ngwira, MPA, CEM
Federal Coordinating Officer
FEMA - Region IX

Mr. Maona Ngwira is a Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) with the Field Leadership Cadre at FEMA HQ since August 2021 and assigned as one of three FCOs within FEMA Region IX, which serves the States of Arizona, Nevada, California, Hawaii, the US Territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, and the Marshall Islands.
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In this capacity when appointed by the President of the United States, he serves as the principal staff advisor to the Regional Administrator, Administrator, and FEMA, leading and coordinating the timely delivery of all Federal disaster assistance to affected communities in support of State, local, Tribal, and Territorial governments throughout the region and the Nation.
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Maona is a high-performing program and disaster management professional with knowledge of government organizational processes, systems, and infrastructure to maximize results in programs, projects and teams in government and disaster operations. Before the current position, he also served in other various positions at FEMA Headquarters, on a National Incident Management Assistant Team (N-IMAT), and he holds field Incident Management titles of Federal Coordinating Officer, Operations Section Chief, Operations Branch Director, Division Supervisor and Operations Task Force Leader. His most recent FEMA deployments include the response and recovery efforts for the 2022 Montana Severe Storm and Flooding, 2021 Tennessee Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, and Tornadoes, 2021 California Wildfires, 2020 Kentucky Severe Storms, Hurricane Sally and Michael in Florida, Hurricane Laura in Louisiana, COVID-19 in FEMA R5, and Illinois Severe Storms and Flooding.
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Maona holds a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA), with an emphasis in Emergency Management, from the University of North Texas, a B.A. in History and Communication from the University of Texas at Arlington and is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) with the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM). He also completed programs with the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, Harvard University, and is a graduate of the 2019 FEMA Fellows Program. He is also, a Community Engagement Committee Ambassador for the Town of Prosper, Texas.