About

Devra Schwartz is a seasoned emergency management, public safety, and enterprise resilience leader with more than 20 years of experience designing and overseeing complex safety, readiness, resilience, and business continuity programs. Devra serves as the Principal Consultant of Total Resilience Consulting, a boutique firm of career emergency management, safety, and security practitioners who “dip their toes” into consulting rather than consultants occasionally dipping into practice. This allows Total Resilience to deliver highly tailored, practical solutions to government, higher education, and private sector partners, avoiding pitfalls commonly associated with plans that are recycled playbooks.

Recognized as a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) by the International Association of Emergency Managers and an award winning innovator, Devra is known for driving organizational change, enhancing readiness, and maintaining calm, decisive leadership in high pressure environments.

Devra began her emergency management career at the City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department. She later served as Vice President of Operations at the Los Angeles Homeland Security Advisory Council and as Vice President of Safety and Security and Director of Emergency Management at a Los Angeles university. A hallmark of her career, Devra consistently builds and leads high performing teams across local government, higher education, and regional coalitions.

Devra graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies, an interdisciplinary program that examines 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. After working closely on youth programming initiatives, she pursued a Master of Science in Strategic Planning for Critical Infrastructure at the University of Washington, Seattle, a pioneering program developed in the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina that focused on risk mitigation across critical infrastructure, emergency management principles, and homeland security strategies.

A strong proponent of continuing education, Devra has completed 40+ professional and hazard specific training courses through FEMA, DHS, and the CDC, as well as executive level programs at Harvard Kennedy School, Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, and HERS Wellesley.

Throughout her career, Devra has been a trusted partner to community, public safety, emergency management, and government organizations, building durable collaborations that span jurisdictions and sectors. With deep experience in GIS, Devra brings a data driven, people centered approach to resilience, combining rigorous analysis with clear communication to help executives, elected officials, and frontline teams mitigate risk and prepare for, respond to, and recover from complex crises.

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