Mary Ellen Carroll

Mary Ellen Carroll is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM), the City’s hub for all‑hazards coordination. She oversees disaster preparedness and planning, the Emergency Operations Center, 9‑1‑1 communications, and the Urban Areas Security Initiative. DEM’s portfolio has expanded under Carroll's leadership—absorbing the EMS Agency from Public Health and creating a Coordinated Street Response Division—while modernizing the 9‑1‑1 center and leading increasingly frequent EOC activations.

With more than two decades in emergency management, Carroll’s experience spans public health, human services, and critical infrastructure. Before her 2018 appointment, she directed Emergency Planning and Security at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission; built citywide business‑continuity and disaster cost‑recovery frameworks in the Controller’s Office; and led health‑systems planning at the Department of Public Health.

Carroll is known for steering the City through high‑visibility operations from San Francisco’s COVID‑19 response, where she stood up a unified COVID Command Center with Public Health and Human Services and partnered with community leaders to close equity gaps, to extreme‑weather activations and major planned events, including the 2023 APEC summit.

A champion for a diverse, community‑centered profession, Carroll mentors emerging leaders and advocates bringing specialists from a variety of fields into emergency management to meet today’s interconnected challenges. She holds a B.A. in International Studies from George Washington University and a graduate degree in Urban Studies from Virginia Tech. Carroll resets in nature—surfing, swimming, and hiking to sustain the pace of the work.