Pearl, Miss. – Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Lee Smithson has announced David Shaw as the new MEMA Deputy Administrator. Shaw, currently the Lafayette County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director, will assume the position on October 1, 2016.
According to MEMA, Shaw comes with a long career in public safety and worked for the Mississippi Highway Patrol for 30 years from July 1979 to June 2009. Since 2009 he has worked as the Director of the Lafayette County Emergency Management Agency.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Shaw responded immediately to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. There he supervised Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agents in various recovery missions including:
• Search, rescue and recovery operations;
• Forming the Katrina Missing Persons Task Force;
• Supplemented local law enforcement agencies while they recovered from effects of the storm;
• Conducted criminal investigation of incidents directly related to the storm;
• Locating displaced sex offenders;
• Provided security on cruise ship in the Port of Pascagoula which was used to house residents displaced by the storm.
“David’s experience in both state law enforcement and local emergency management makes him the perfect person for this position,” said Director Smithson. “His main job will be to support and advise all 82 county emergency managers and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians to make sure they have the tools and resources they need to make them successful.”
Shaw is a native of Lafayette County. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with a Bachelors of Public Administration, majoring in Law Enforcement.
