RICHMOND, VA — The Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) announces that Deborah Mills, CFM, has been named a Foundation Fellow. The ASFPM Foundation began its Fellows Program to provide an opportunity for long-standing supporters to remain engaged and active in supporting the organization’s mission of promoting education and policies that mitigate losses caused by flooding. Mills was selected based on her long-time commitment to ASFPM and the emergency management and hazard mitigation industry.

Mills is an Associate and Emergency Management Senior Specialist for Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm, in its resilience solutions group. She is based in the firm’s Richmond, Virginia, office but spends much of her time traveling on assignments under the firm’s various Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contracts. She is a former Virginia State Hazard Mitigation Officer and Recovery Division Director with more than two decades of FEMA Hazard Mitigation and Public Assistance program management experience. Mills is a national subject matter expert on hazard mitigation. She is the third Dewberry employee to be named a Foundation Fellow.

A graduate of West Virginia University, Mills earned a bachelor’s degree in forest management (1978) and has gone on to be published more than 40 times. Previous awards and recognitions include the 1996 Richmond Woman of the Year award, Richmond Association of Business Women; 1999 Humanitarian Award, Department of Conservation & Recreation; the 2007 Certificate of Commendation for Leadership for the Enhanced Hazard Mitigation Plan, Virginia Department of Emergency Management; and the 2013 ASFPM Jerry Louthian Award for Distinguished Service.