Mayor Adams Appoints NYC Emergency Management Leadership Team

Zachary Iscol Appointed NYCEM Commissioner

Christina Farrell Appointed NYCEM First Deputy Commissioner

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced two appointments to lead New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM), the agency tasked with coordinating citywide emergency planning and response. Zachary Iscol will serve as commissioner of NYCEM. Christina Farrell will serve as first deputy commissioner, the first woman ever to serve in that role. She previously served as acting commissioner. Staffed by 200 professionals, NYCEM works with agencies across city government to develop disaster readiness plans and respond to emergencies when they arise. Commissioner Iscol and First Deputy Commissioner Farrell will both be responsible for delivering on Mayor Adams’ vision of a safer city by implementing upstream strategies to ensure the city is prepared for and able to mitigate emergencies before they become crises.

About Zachary Iscol

Zachary Iscol will serve as commissioner of NYCEM. Iscol previously pulled together over 40 federal, state, and city agencies as the deputy director of Joint New York Medical Station, one of the largest and only successful COVID-19 field hospitals in the country. He recently ran for New York City comptroller.

As a Marine, Iscol served two tours in Iraq and on other assignments throughout Africa and the Middle East. During his second tour of duty, he led a combined unit of US Marines and Iraqi soldiers in some of the heaviest fighting of the Iraq War during the Second Battle of Fallujah, where he was awarded a Bronze Star for valor. He later helped build many of the components of the Marine Corps’ First Special Operations Command (MARSOC) and was deployed on one of the first MARSOC teams to deploy overseas.

Over the past decade, Iscol has built and led businesses and a non-profit health care provider, the Headstrong Project. The Headstrong Project now cares for over 1,000 veterans a week, in more than 30 cities, and provides world-class, cost- and bureaucracy-free mental health care to veterans and service members so that they can recover from hidden wounds and get back to the best versions of themselves.

Iscol received his B.A. from Cornell University. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Meredith, their four children, and three rescue dogs.

Iscol will report to Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks.

About Christina Farrell

Christina Farrell will serve as the first deputy commissioner of NYCEM. She has been acting first deputy since October 2021 and acting commissioner since January 2022. Since the beginning of 2022, Farrell managed the citywide response to multiple snowstorms, the tragic Bronx fire, and multiple building explosions. During her time at the agency, Farrell has served as the director of grants, as well as assistant commissioner and deputy commissioner of external affairs. Under her leadership, foundational programs at New York City Emergency Management have been created and grown to national prominence, including the New York City Community Emergency Response Team Program, Ready New York, and Notify NYC. A city employee for more than 27 years, Farrell started at New York City Emergency Management in 2003.

She is a graduate of Colgate University and has a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Farrell resides in Whitestone, Queens, with her husband Tim and their four children.

New York City Emergency Management Headquarters
165 Cadman Plaza East
Brooklyn

February 17, 2022