Leadership

As the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 1993 until 2001, James Lee Witt witnessed some of the worst crises Mother Nature, chance and certain humans had to offer — earthquakes, floods, airline crashes, the Oklahoma City bombing, and more. Through it all, he not only drastically improved the reputation FEMA had among lawmakers and crisis victims and survivors alike (his leadership rescued the flagging agency), he also developed a strategy for managing crises — a customer-ce