Joshua Barnes

About Joshua Barnes

Mr. Joshua Barnes serves as the Director, Disaster Response Coordination System (DRCS) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Hampton, VA. In his role, he is responsible for coordinating NASA-wide efforts to support disaster-impacted communities with the best available science and products to help improve decision making after disasters. Prior to his role at NASA, he served as the Recovery Director of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in Washington, DC. In his role as Recovery Director, Joshua led agency-wide disaster recovery, operational coordination, and the implementation of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience (ODRR) mission. He is a highly experienced emergency management and community development leader with demonstrated success working with federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, non-profit, and private sector leaders across the country in deriving solutions to complex problems. Prior to his service at the SBA, he led the Recovery Division in the Department of Health and Human Services, ASPR. There, he led federal recovery activities to improve the short and long-term outcomes with data-driven decision-making for supporting public health, social services, and healthcare system recovery. Prior to joining HHS, Joshua served on the White House National Security Council Staff as the Director for Preparedness Policy. He led, planned, and coordinated the development and implementation of preparedness policies and associated grant programs. Included in those efforts was implementing the National Preparedness policies for the federal government. In addition, he led interagency efforts to integrate better federal community resilience policies and national-level actions in building long-term drought resilience, resulting in a Presidential Memorandum and associated National Action Plan. Previously, Joshua served as the EDA Disaster Recovery Coordinator and led interagency efforts to coordinate information sharing, technical assistance, and the leverage of resources to support major and catastrophic disasters nationwide. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Geographic Sciences from James Madison University and a Master of Public Health from A.T. Still University.