Bill McGann has a most varied background that includes over 32 years of service as a volunteer Firefighter/EMT with the Loudoun County, Virginia, Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management. He is the former Fire Chief for the town of Hamilton, Virginia, and holds numerous State of Virginia certifications. In addition, he served four years as a Loudoun County Fire Commissioner.   He is part of a first responder family, as two of his sons are career Fire Officers in the Washington, DC, area, and a third son is a South Carolina Firefighter.

In 2006, Mr. McGann joined the FEMA Disaster Operations Directorate as an Operations Specialist. His responsibilities included working in the Operations and Planning sections of the National Response Coordination Center and at Joint Field Offices throughout the Country. In this role he supported numerous disasters and emergencies.

Prior to his recent retirement from Federal service, he worked at the DHS/FEMA Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center near Bluemont, Virginia, where he served as the facility Emergency Manager. In this role, he was responsible for the facilities comprehensive emergency management program, which includes management of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).   He was responsible for facility preparedness for "all-hazard" threats, including those related to terrorism.  Prior to joining FEMA, he worked with US Customs and Border Protection as part of a radiation detection team, supporting and training Federal Officers in the use of radiation detection equipment at our borders.

Mr. McGann has extensive experience in adult education. He worked for many years as an international training manager and trainer with Xerox Corporation, and also served as training manager at the Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute, an agency whose mission is to assist justice and public safety agencies in the use of advanced technologies to better share mission critical information. He has also worked as a professional Incident Command System (ICS) trainer, and continues to deliver both intermediate (ICS-300) and advanced (ICS-400) ICS classes to federal, state and local agencies throughout the Country.

Mr. McGann holds a Masters degree in Emergency and Disaster Management from the American Public University and an undergraduate degree in Management from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. He is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and a Professional Emergency Manager (PEM) through the Virginia Emergency Management Association.  He served in the United States Marine Corp for four years, and is a Vietnam Veteran.