John Michael “Mike” Siler was hired as the Director of the Office of Public Assistance in August 2020 for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. In the last three years since he took office, there has been seven declared disasters under his purview for Public Assistance as well as overseeing more than 20 past disasters. Mike serves as the State Public Assistance Officer for the State of Mississippi.
Public Assistance is a federal funded disaster grant program, administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which can fund the repair, restoration, reconstruction or replacement of eligible public or certain nonprofit facilities or infrastructure damaged or destroyed by a disaster. MEMA’s role is to facilitate the program as an advocate for the local, state, and certain nonprofit applicants to ensure compliance and disperse the reimbursement funding. After an event, Public Assistance Director’s role is to collect data on damages from the effected area and begin communications with FEMA to determine if the impact is large enough to warrant a federal disaster declaration. If declared a federal disaster our MEMA Public Assistance teams will work with our local and state partners to repair/rebuild back to pre-disaster conditions by providing reimbursements for eligible expenses.
Mike has over 25 years of experience in emergency services in both response and recovery. Prior to becoming Director, Mike also served as Branch Director with MEMA. Before serves with MEMA, He served as a Senior Policy Consultant/ Policy Advisor and Project Specialist for private consulting firms, advising State agencies, as well as Private entities in best disaster practices as well as writing new emergency management policies. Prior to that, Mike served in Law Enforcement on both the local and state level.
Mike is from New Hebron, Mississippi and currently resides there with his Wife, April, daughter, Emma, and son, Zachary.
