Elizabeth Davis is Director of the Emergency Preparedness Initiative. Ms. Davis is an experienced emergency management professional specializing in disability issues, and assisted at “ground zero” in New York City during the September 11 crisis. She has worked since then with the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and the New York City Office of Emergency Management as the Special Needs Advisor.

Prior to opening her special needs consultancy, EAD & Associates, LLC last year, Ms. Davis was for more than four years Special Needs Advisor: Emergency Management Planner with the New York City Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, where she incorporated disability access standards into the city's emergency contingency plans, drills and outreach programs. She previously served as Assistant to Counsel and Senior Policy Analyst at the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. Since 1997 Ms. Davis has been co-chair of the National Hurricane Conference Special Needs/Health Care Committee. She earned both her law degree and her master's in education, focused on Deaf Studies, at Boston University, and her undergraduate degree at Barnard College – Columbia University. She is fluent in American Sign Language.

Elizabeth Davis
Vice President & Director, Emergency Preparedness Initiative