Carlos Dávila graduated from Catholic University with a Ph.D. in history in 2006. He now leads a team at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security that among other things, works with universities and academic institutions to sponsor emergency management research. The team mentors individual students, and groups, to design research projects that examine how the Agency can best serve vulnerable communities. These projects are especially important as DHS faces yearly uncertainty with its budget. “We want to see how we can make the best use of our resources to serve disaster survivor populations that need our help the most.” Prior to his current position, Dr. Dávila was the Director of the Business Management Division, Recovery Directorate, Office of Response and Recovery; and Deputy, Chief Information Officer, both at FEMA.

“I really love my job because I get to work with schools and students who bring a broad range of perspectives to the problems at hand,” Dr. Dávila credits his ability to be an effective mentor to the example the faculty mentors in the Department of History set for him: “My mentors set very high standards for themselves and for me. One of the very important things they demonstrated to me was that you could have vigorous disagreements about approaches and evidence with your colleagues, but that you could do so in a respectful and courteous way.”