Director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency
Download Director Mallette's Biography Here
Mr. Mallette currently serves as the Executive Director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and was appointed Executive Director by Governor Martin O’Malley, on May 21, 2011.
Prior to coming to MEMA, Ken was the vice president for Witt Associates, a crisis and preparedness management firm headed by former FEMA Director James Lee Witt. Mr. Mallette was responsible for the company’s emergency management and homeland security services. He provides technical expertise and consultation services to public and private sector clients.
Mr. Mallette has over twenty-five years of diverse service with the New Jersey State Police where he retired as a Captain. He was the Executive Officer for the Special Operations Section, Chief for the Emergency Management and Marine Services Bureau, the State Exercise and Training Officer, Commander of the Camden Anti-Crime Task Force, Deputy Troop Commander, Station Commander and academy instructor.
Mr. Mallette was a member of the National Incident Command System (ICS) Training Curriculum Steering Committee and assisted in the development of the I-100, 200, 300, & 400 ICS training curricula. Mr. Mallette was one of ten instructors chosen nationally by the Department of Defense (DoD) to deliver the Senior Official's Workshop as part of the Domestic Preparedness Program for the DoD Soldier Chemical & Biological Defense Command. Mr. Mallette has provided Weapons of Mass Destruction training to senior policymakers in over sixty major cities throughout the US.
Recognized as an expert in the National Incident Management System, Incident Command System (NIMS/ICS), Mr. Mallette has taught ICS throughout the US and internationally.
Mr. Mallette has provided incident management technical support and has acted as an Incident Command System (ICS) advisor for the 1993 National Governor's Conference in Princeton, New Jersey, and was assigned as the ICS advisor to the command staff for the FIFA World Cup Soccer Games in 1994. Mr. Mallette was a facilitator for the crash of TWA Flight #800 Multi-Agency post incident evaluation held in Brookhaven, New York. Ken assisted the US Coast Guard with the implementation of ICS and trained the National Strike Force in Elizabeth City, NC. On September 11, 2001, Mr. Mallette was assigned to the FEMA/USAR Incident Support Team to assist with the Planning Section at the World Trade Center disaster. Mr. Mallette was assigned as the Operations Section Chief for during New Jersey's response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. Ken was an ICS advisor to the US Ambassador of Haiti during the January 2010 earthquake that killed over 250,000 people.
He is a graduate of the 213th class from the FBI National Academy, and has a MA from Seton Hall University, New Jersey, and a BA from Benedictine College, Kansas. He is married to his wife Kathleen for 30 years and has three children.