Leading Through Catastrophe with Seamus Leary

Leading Through Catastrophe with Seamus Leary

From Disaster Podcast by Jamie Davis, Sam Bradley, Joe Holley, Kyle Nelson

February 7, 2026 · 39 min

About this episode

Seamus Leary discusses leadership in emergency management during catastrophic events.

This week on the Disaster Podcast we chat with Seamus Leary ,MPA, CEM about leading through catastrophe: when systems fail. He is President of Meridian Strategic Services, Inc. and is an emergency management expert who worked at the state and local levels and later with FEMA at the Federal level. With responses to numerous major disasters, Seamus brings a unique perspective to how emergency managers can cope when all the usual systems break down. The episode is co-hosted by Sam Bradley and Jamie Davis. Scroll down for Podcast Discussion Summary Thank you as always to Paragon Medical Education Group for their long-term support of the Disaster Podcast. Dr. Joe Holley and the team at Paragon continue to provide excellent and customized disaster response training to jurisdictions around the U.S. and internationally as well. Podcast Discussion Summary FEMA’s Disaster Response Methods Seamus Leary, president of Meridian Strategic Services, discussed his experience in emergency management, including his role as a federal coordinating officer for FEMA Region 2 and his work as a county emergency manager. He explained FEMA’s disaster classification system, highlighting that…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sam Bradley, Jamie Davis

Guest: Seamus Leary

Topics covered

  • emergency management
  • disaster response
  • leadership
  • FEMA
  • catastrophic events

Keywords

  • emergency management
  • FEMA
  • disaster response
  • catastrophic disasters
  • leadership

Sponsors

Paragon Medical Education Group

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Meridian Strategic Services, Inc., FEMA

More episodes of Disaster Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Disaster Podcast podcast page.