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Adam Sutkus, Managing Senior Mediator

Adam Sutkus brings 20 years of public sector policy and program management to the Center, specializing in Emergency Services and Homeland Security expertise. As Lead Facilitator/Mediator for the Center’s new portfolio of disaster planning and response collaboration, Adam is assisting government agencies at all levels and key stakeholder groups to design, develop, and implement an array of public safety initiatives and programs that have increased exponentially since the events of 9/11.

Prior to joining the Center, Adam held key program management and policy positions throughout government, including special appointments under three Governors. Early in his career, Adam served as a congressional aide in Washington, D.C., concentrating on environmental and disaster management issues. In 1987, Adam was selected nationally as a Presidential Management Fellow, and held positions with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and on Capitol Hill. In California, Adam has served as Executive Director of the State’s Recycling Advisory Committee in the Dept. of Conservation; as Dept. of Fish and Game’s liaison for oil spill emergency response and policy; and as Chief of Staff for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Since 1994, Adam has participated in State Operations Center disaster response efforts for numerous emergencies, including fires, floods, airline crashes, power shortages, earthquakes, and most recently—terrorist threats. In 2002, Adam was appointed as the first statewide director of California’s Citizen Corps program for community-based homeland security and emergency response within the office of the Governor.

Adam’s previous stakeholder-based collaborative efforts have included mediating local/state jurisdictional issues for oil spill emergencies; negotiating utility industry integration into disaster response; facilitating plans for federal agency integration into California’s State Operations Center; mediating policy differences among volunteer responder organizations; and designing/facilitating development of California’s first coastal zone hazardous materials response plan. Current projects include facilitating multi-agency interoperability communications planning; designing an organizational system for medical volunteers in bioterrorism events; and helping state and local agencies meet federal homeland security mandates within California’s Standardized Emergency Management System.

Adam has published in several trade journals as well as authored legislative testimony and policy speeches. He is currently President-Elect of the American Society for Public Administration, Sacramento/State Capitol Chapter. Adam holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physical Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Southern California’s Washington D.C. Public Affairs Center.