Episode 13: Leading Culture Change: Rich Serino on Building Trust and Giving People Hope
What does it take to change the culture of an entire organization — and bring a “whole community” approach to life?
Rich Serino, former Deputy Administrator of FEMA and longtime Boston EMS Chief, shares powerful lessons on building trust, listening deeply, and creating a culture where people feel proud of the mission.
In this episode, Rich talks about:
☕ How culture change starts with listening and giving people hope
☕ Why the “whole community” approach transforms how we prepare for and respond to disasters
☕ Launching FEMA Corps and what it taught him about collaboration
☕ Leading through more than 60 disasters and briefing the President in the Situation Room
☕ The importance of mentorship and building the next generation of emergency managers
It’s an inspiring and practical conversation for anyone passionate about leadership, teamwork, and creating lasting change in their community.
About Rich Serino
Richard Serino spent more than 40 years in public service, providing extensive leadership on emergency management, emergency medical and homeland security at local, state, federal and international levels. Mr. Serino is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Harvard & School of Public Health, National Preparedness Leadership Initiative.
Serino was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate as FEMA's Deputy Administrator in October 2009 and served until 2014. In this role, he also served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the agency with more than $25 billion budget.
Prior to this appointment, he spent 36 years at Boston EMS where he rose through the ranks to become Chief. He also served as the Assistant Director of the Boston Public Health Commission. Mr. Serino responded to over 60 national disasters while at FEMA and during Super Storm Sandy, he was the lead federal area commander for New York and New Jersey. Serino was also on scene at the Boston Marathon bombings as the Department of Homeland Security senior official.
As the Agency’s COO, Mr. Serino fundamentally changed how FEMA operates. He helped FEMA reorient its activities and improve its programs to be “Survivor centric,” ensuring that the agency supports the delivery of services focused on easing the recovery experience of survivors – as individuals, neighborhoods, and communities.
As Deputy Administrator, he also led administrative improvements that were focused on emphasizing financial accountability, created FEMA Stat, which improved the use of analytics to drive decisions, advanced the workforce training and engagement and fostered a culture of innovation. Under his leadership, FEMA launched initiatives such as FEMA Corps, a dedicated unit of 1,600 service corps members within AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) solely devoted to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. His leadership took FEMA Corps from idea to implementation in nine months.
Mr. Serino was also instrumental in developing the FEMA Think Tank, a program that provides a transparent way for citizens to speak directly to government leadership and offer their input and ideas. The monthly calls portion of the Think Tank have not just trended globally on Twitter but have also given the “Whole of Community” a voice directly to leadership.
During his tenure at Boston EMS, he transformed it to one of the best and nationally recognized EMS systems in the country. He bolstered the city’s response plans for major emergencies, including chemical, biological, and radiological attacks. He also led citywide planning for the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years.
Mr. Serino served as an Incident Commander for over 35 mass casualty incidents and for all of Boston’s major planned events. He has received more than 35 local, national and international awards for public service and innovation; including Harvard University National Public Leadership Institute’s “Leader of the Year”; nationally recognized as an Innovator in EMS with the “Innovators in EMS Award” and Boston’s highest Public Service award, “Henry L Shattuck Public Service Award”. Mr. Serino published more than ten articles, including: “Emergency Medical Consequence Planning and Management for National Special Security Events After September 11: Boston: 2004,” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, August 2008; and “In a Moment’s Notice: Surge Capacity for Terrorist Bombings,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, April 2007.
Mr. Serino attended Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives in State and Local Government program in 2000, completed the Harvard School of Public Health’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative in 2005, and graduated the Executive Leadership Program, Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School.