About

About Devra Schwartz

Devra Schwartz is a Safety and Security Consultant with decades of experience leading the private sector, government entities, and educational institutions in strategic and emergency planning, program development, and crisis management. Her leadership and experience have helped colleagues and partners alike to expand market share, minimize risk, and control impacts to security, reputation, and profit. Schwartz has a proven track record of developing and implementing crisis management plans that increase public safety, harden security protocols, and buttress corporate interests. Her skill set and steadfast composure during high-pressure situations have cemented her legacy as an innovative leader in public safety.

Devra is renowned for cultivating high-performing teams that are prepared to effectively implement programs and emergency response and crisis recovery strategies that minimize disruptions to operations. Her crisis management experience covers many scenarios, including data breaches, natural disasters, public scandals, and financial crises. Schwartz is adept in conducting detailed analyses of current security systems and business models, leveraging innovative technology, and implementing an organizational protocol to build resiliency that can withstand or recover from business interruptions.

Schwartz began her career in the educational sector as a Program Manager for several large-scale initiatives to promote academic excellence and leadership skills in middle and high school students. Her roles in the education sector included collaborating with leadership and the board of directors to implement youth development programs in NYC schools in marginalized communities. In 2007, Devra pivoted into her current career, serving as the Emergency Management Coordinator of the City of Los Angeles, where she managed grants, developed effective response and recovery plans, and responded to many large-scale event and crisis management activations with city, county, state, and federal agencies.

With over twenty years of leading high-performing teams, Devra prioritizes setting clear expectations and fostering a collaborative atmosphere where each team member is valued. She has successfully guided cross-functional teams to achieve ambitious goals while maintaining a positive, team-oriented culture.

EDUCATION

Devra Schwartz graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies, an interdisciplinary path of study that engages students to examine how law shapes and is shaped by political, economic, and cultural forces. She complemented her studies with an international program at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. 

After being intimately involved in several youth programming initiatives, Schwartz made a critical career move and decided to attend the University of Washington to earn a Master of Science in Strategic Planning for Critical Infrastructure. This program, which was among the first of its kind implemented in the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, provided training in areas related to managing and mitigating risk across all critical infrastructure, emergency management principles, and fundamentals of homeland security strategies and best practices. 

Schwartz has always been a proponent of continuing education, and she currently holds several professional and  hazard-specific training certificates from FEMA, along with the following executive-level certificates:

• Leadership in Crises Certification  from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
• Enhanced All Hazards Incident Management Certificate from Texas A & M Engineering
• HERS Wellesley Leadership Certificate from  HERS Leadership Institute at Wellesley University 

CAREER

Devra Schwartz is currently the Principal Consultant at Total Resilience Consulting, where she advises the City of Los Angeles on supply chain resilience and consults with higher education institutions to improve their safety and security. 

For five years, Schwartz served as the Vice President of Safety and Security for Loyola Marymount University (LMU), where she directed initiatives and a team of 60 professionals in public safety, emergency management, security technology and access control, and environmental health and safety. Her executive role involved the rebranding of the department, strategic planning, governance and compliance, and oversight of a multi-million dollar budget. 

Prior to this role, Devra served as the Vice President of Operations at the LA Homeland Security Advisory Council, where she co-created a transformative GIS-based technology platform that empowered government and private sector partners to make unprecedented data-informed decisions, share information during a crisis or large-scale event, and manage resources. During her time at HSAC, Devra established partnerships with over 50 organizations in the Los Angeles region, which adopted HSAC’s GIS program, including LAPD, LAFD, LA Emergency Management Department, and LA Office of the Mayor.

Devra’s career spans more than two decades, with experience at LMU as the Director of Emergency Management & Strategic Initiatives and Assistant Chief of Public Safety, Emergency Management Coordinator at the City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department, and Program Manager for several organizations and companies, including start-ups that offer youth development and safety programs.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS & AWARDS

Schwartz is particularly proud of and received acclaim for her work during COVID-19, planning the 2019 Democratic Presidential Debate, and co-creating SALUS, the GIS-based crisis and event management tool adopted across the greater LA region. SALUS earned first place in the IBM Stanford Hackathon for leading the development of innovative technology that impacts municipalities’ resiliency. 

Years earlier, the Los Angeles City Controller awarded the City of Los Angeles Quality & Productivity Award to the City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Internship Program, which Devra developed to create a force-multiplier of highly trained and motivated individuals to contribute to critical emergency management work in addition to a pathway for the next generation of emergency managers. 

Schwartz served as a founding advisory board member for the UCLA certificate programs in Emergency Management. 

Schwartz was invited to speak at an international sustainability conference about disrupting technologies, delivered a TedX on emergency management, and published several articles related to emergency management and inter-departmental collaborations.