Gov. Bill Haslam on Tuesday named a top Ohio official as director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
Patrick Sheehan, 40, takes over as TEMA chief on June 15.
TEMA coordinates overall state agency responses to major disasters in support of local governments. The office is responsible for ensuring the state's readiness to respond to and recover from natural, man-made and technological emergencies and when called for to coordinate actions with the federal government.
Sheehan is now the operations administrator for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. He has led Ohio's Emergency Operations Center and the Radiological and Preparedness Branches since 2014 and, according to Haslam's office, successfully managed the state's response to several declared emergencies including a 2014 Ebola event, a 2014 drinking water crisis in Toledo and a 2012 statewide long-term power outage and heat wave impacting 33 Ohio counties.
"Patrick was the top candidate in a nationwide search for a director to lead the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency," Haslam said in the news release. "His experience coordinating the responses to several serious statewide emergencies in Ohio is impressive and he will use those skills to help Tennesseans during times of crisis."