Lindsey Anderson is a public sector advisor and writer based in Columbus, Ohio, where she grew up. Before returning to Ohio in 2025, Lindsey worked in Washington, D.C. as a senior strategist and operations leader with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and as an Executive in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Lindsey has 19 years of experience leading operations strategy, program design, and improvement initiatives in government and nonprofit organizations. Her expertise includes:

  • Facilitating senior leaders in defining long-term outcomes—for organizations ranging in budget from $5 million to $2.5 billion;

  • Leading organizations in developing operational plans to achieve those outcomes;

  • Evaluating if programs and operations are meeting outcomes; and

  • Transforming complex ideas into compelling narratives that achieve desired results.

As mom to an exuberant, curious daughter, Lindsey is also passionate about how individuals learn and grow and is an experienced and well-reviewed, graduate-level instructor.

Experience-Backed Perspective

Lindsey most recently served as the Chief Strategy Officer for FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery (ORR) where she led an assets and risks based approach to developing long-term, transformative goals for an organization of 14,ooo people. She served as the principal advisor in ORR on FEMA reform options.

Previously, Lindsey served as Director of Strategy and Policy in FEMA’s Office of Policy and Program Analysis (OPPA) where she led national-level strategy initiatives, including implementation of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, revision of the Agency’s foundational doctrine, and national studies on strategies to reduce disaster costs and community risk.

Lindsey also previously served as Deputy to FEMA’s Assistant Administrator for Field Leadership where she led more than 400 individuals who make up FEMA’s field leadership cadre and Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMATs). She led development of the Directorate’s annual strategies, overhauled training programs, implemented aggressive recruitment and hiring strategies, oversaw operational deployments, and managed a $25M budget.  

In 2017, Lindsey was selected to serve as an Executive in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public and International Affairs. During her residency, she led research on the behaviors of leaders who are in effective in crisis, taught three graduate-level management courses, and championed research on decision-making in uncertainty.

Lindsey has also held management roles in community-based nonprofit organizations in Pittsburgh, PA and served as a consultant on nonprofit governance, development, and performance management. She holds a Master of Public and International Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in English Writing.

For more information about Lindsey’s expertise, please find her on LinkedIn or contact her below.