From Disaster Operations to an Editorial Board

ESOPUS, N.Y. Oct. 8, 2026 — Lessons learned during disaster operations in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley and communities across the country can help others prepare, respond, and recover. How you share that insight makes all the difference. 

Seamus K. Leary, MPA, CEM, president of Meridian Strategic Services, Inc., and a former Federal Emergency Management Agency Federal Coordinating Officer, has been named to Homeland Security Today’s new Emergency Management Editorial Board.

The role gives him another way to share what emergency management looks and feels like when plans meet reality and to engage emergency managers, first responders, and homeland security leaders.

The magazine’s readers will hear from board members through articles, commentary, interviews, special reports, events, and conversations focused on preparedness, response, recovery, and the issues shaping the profession. For Leary, the opportunity starts with making experience useful to others.

“I am looking forward to sharing some of the experiences I’ve had throughout my career,” Leary said. “I have had the opportunity to see crisis leadership and emergency management from a lot of different perspectives—from military logistics to emergency management in Orange County, New York, to coordinating federal disaster response and recovery operations nationwide, and now helping our clients prepare for crises. Each experience taught me something different, and I hope I can carry those lessons forward and make them useful to others in the profession.”

Leary has spent more than two decades seeing emergencies from different sides, from public health and county emergency management to coordinating federal disaster response and recovery nationwide.

Today, through his consultancy, Meridian Strategic Services, he helps clients build a Culture of Resilience, making preparedness an integral part of how organizations think, plan, and operate every day.

Leary is equally interested in what he can learn from the more than two dozen subject matter experts who join him on the board.

“There is a tremendous amount of experience on this board,” Leary said. “I look forward to learning from their broad range of experience and collaborating to make this nation safer from the complex threats we face.”

About Meridian Strategic Services, Inc.

Meridian Strategic Services, Inc. is a Hudson Valley-based emergency management and resilience consulting firm that partners with government, private-sector, and non-governmental organizations to prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises. Its services include strategic resilience planning, continuity programs, crisis leadership training, exercises, and preparedness training, all supported by consultants with federal, state, local, and private-sector experience.

Media Contact: Jacqueline Chandler, Meridian Communication Coordinator. 907-723-0503