Biography

Dr. Daniel Kaniewski is a nationally recognized disaster resilience leader, uniquely positioned at the intersection of emergency management and P&C insurance. For more than 25 years, he has shaped national policies and pioneered solutions to reduce risk and build resilience across the public and private sectors. His senior leadership roles include FEMA Deputy Administrator, Presidential Advisor, and Marsh U.S. Public Sector Leader.

Throughout his career, Dr. Kaniewski has championed a more proactive approach to disasters—emphasizing preparedness, risk reduction, and risk transfer rather than relying primarily on post-disaster recovery. His perspective is informed by firsthand experience with the nation’s most consequential disasters, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Maria, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, Dr. Kaniewski is founder and CEO of Northstar Risk & Resilience, a strategic advisory firm. He advises leaders in the emergency management and insurance industries—from early-stage startups to market-leading firms—on risk, strategy, and growth. He also serves as an advisor to Bright Harbor, Juvare/WebEOC, The Resiliency Company, and Zephyr Resilience.

For six years, Dr. Kaniewski led Marsh’s U.S. Public Sector business at the corporate level, overseeing $500 million in annual revenue. He spearheaded enterprise-wide risk management, risk transfer, and strategic advisory solutions for federal, state, and local governments.

From 2017 to 2020, Dr. Kaniewski served as the second-ranking official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), overseeing a $15 billion budget and 20,000-person workforce. As the agency's first Deputy Administrator for Resilience, he established FEMA Resilience, bringing together preparedness, flood insurance, and hazard mitigation programs to advance a more unified approach to disaster risk reduction.

Before joining FEMA, Dr. Kaniewski launched the global resilience practice at Verisk, directed resilience and emergency preparedness programs at a federally funded research and development center, and co-founded a homeland security think tank at George Washington University.

In the George W. Bush Administration, Dr. Kaniewski served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Senior Director for Response Policy. In this role, he advised the President on emergency management policy and coordinated more than 200 presidential disaster declarations.

Earlier in his career, he held positions at the Congressional Fire Services Institute and on Capitol Hill. He began his career as a firefighter/paramedic, an experience that sparked his lifelong commitment to disaster resilience.

A frequent speaker and commentator on disaster resilience, emergency management, and insurance, Dr. Kaniewski shares lessons from public policy, operational experience, and private-sector risk management. His thought leadership includes keynote addresses, congressional testimony, and published commentary advocating practical approaches to reducing disaster losses and strengthening financial resilience.

Dr. Kaniewski currently serves as a Non-Resident Scholar at the Insurance Information Institute, Chair of the Committee on Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate at the National Institute of Building Sciences, and a Senior Fellow at the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security. He was a 2026 American Heartland Fellow at the Claremont Institute.

He previously chaired the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) High-Level Risk Forum and served on the DHS Homeland Security Advisory Council and DC Homeland Security Commission. He was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has also served on the graduate faculty at Georgetown University and George Washington University.

Dr. Kaniewski holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from George Washington University, an M.A. in National Security Studies from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and a B.S. magna cum laude in Emergency Medical Services from George Washington University.