Jo Ann Howard, Texas
As a presidential appointee to FEMA as the Federal Insurance Administrator in 1997, Jo Ann brought her insurance regulatory background as an attorney who had served as Texas’ head insurance regulator at the State Board of Insurance (now, Texas Department of Insurance). Her experience with property and casualty lines of insurance and insurance rate setting underpinned her qualifications for the FEMA position. Gilbert White tutored her in floodplain management and flood adaptation.
Since the late 1990’s Jo Ann has supported the ASFPM organization’s role in managing flood risk and the need for strong state and local programs to reduce flood risk and taxpayer costs for flood disasters. These efforts included a three-year study of how to improve the NFIP called “Evaluation of the National Flood Insurance Program” with the American Institutes for Research as the contractor. This report included a comprehensive set of recommendations on how to strengthen the NFIP, which ASFPM continues to work to implement (Add Link to report).
Jo Ann also served on the ASFPM Foundation Executive Board as chair of the fellows committee, which consists of long-standing floodplain experts and private sector executives.
When at FEMA, the flood insurance program digitized historical paper documents and bulletins, re-wrote the policy forms, updated flood premium rates annually, investigated reinsurance for the federal program and recommended it to the Treasury Department to limit taxpayer financial exposure in high flood disaster years. She initiated a hearing on the Write Your Own (WYO) allowances, visited all 10 FEMA regions each year, and met with the WYO companies at regular meetings.
After leaving her position at FEMA, Jo Ann started H2O Partners, Inc. as a woman-owned consulting business, which she has run since 2001. Her firm has developed hazard mitigation plans for 500 local jurisdictions in multiple states and a state mitigation plan for Texas. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, H2O became experts in the Public Assistance Program and grant writing in Mississippi and Louisiana. She has worked with Risk Map contracts and river authority studies. Since 2008, the firm has been a FEMA contractor providing training and education to flood insurance agents and claims adjusters in all states and U.S. territories. The instruction includes classroom, video, webinar, EMI online courses and other presentations to lenders, floodplain managers, realtors, and other stakeholders.
Jo Ann has received numerous awards from ASFPM, Natural Hazard Mitigation Association (NHMA), Texas Floodplain Management Association (TFMA), and other disaster-related organizations. She cherishes the professional associations and friendships made possible by participation in ASFPM and its Foundation. H2O Partners has been a contributor and sponsor of flood and floodplain management conferences, workshops, insurance programs and speakers’ series.