FEMA has confirmed Antwane Johnson has retired as director of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, effective Dec. 30, 2023.
Johnson joined FEMA in 2009, becoming the head of the new IPAWS program.
As director, he set the the agency’s strategic vision, developed alert and warning policies, represented the agency during congressional hearings and provided expert advice on legislative initiatives to ensure the president can communicate with the American people under all conditions, a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement announcing Johnson’s retirement.
He took IPAWS — a national system for local alerting — from its infancy through the IPAWS Modernization Act of 2015, and now to the point where it has 1,800 alerting authorities around the country using its capabilities to provide emergency information to the public, according to a FEMA spokesperson.
“Antwane Johnson is a visionary, outstanding leader and colleague who transformed the nations alert and warning capability and worked every day to make a difference for the public,” said Michael S. George, associate administrator of FEMA’s Office of National Continuity Programs.
George continued: “Antwane’s departure is a loss for the nation. He has more than earned his retirement and time to do the things he loves.”
A Radio World email to Johnson seeking comment on the FEMA announcement was not immediately returned.
In his leadership role at FEMA, Johnson led the nation’s first test of the National Public Warning System and Presidential Wireless Emergency Alert System in 2018, according to his online FEMA profile.
Additionally, FEMA says he helped launched the nation’s IPAWS Open Platform for Emergency Networks in 2012, giving federal, state, local, tribal and territorial leaders access to national capabilities, enabling authorities to warn citizens in their respective areas of threats to public safety and communicate protective actions in response to the threat.
Before joining FEMA, the government agency says Johnson served as the director for critical infrastructure protection within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense & Americas’ Security Affairs, where he was responsible for ensuring a resilient defense industrial base to meet the needs of the department in executing the National Military Strategy.
Before his work with Critical Infrastructure Protection, Johnson worked for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency as the chief of information management technology, where he was responsible for developing arms control technologies in support of conventional and strategic arms control agreements, a FEMA spokesperson said.
FEMA says his most notable accomplishment in that position was the development and acceptance of U.S. technologies for use by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a community of 55 participating nations; a technology that is still in use today.
Johnson graduated from Norfolk State University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, and the National Defense University’s Information Resource Management College Chief Information Officer program.
The FEMA veteran is also a graduate of the Defense Acquisition University, Defense Systems Management College and the Western and Eastern Management Development Centers. Johnson has received numerous awards, including the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal and the Commanders Award for Civilian Service, according to his profile on FEMA’s website.
IPAWS Deputy Director Wade Witmer will become acting director until a permanent replacement is named, according to FEMA.
