Principal Consultant…

James (Jim) Featherstone is a nationally recognized leader in the crisis management field with over three decades of experience. He is the Principal Consultant at Themata Strategic LLC, providing crisis management consulting and executive training services to business, government, non-profit, and higher education clients.

Jim was recently the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), a position he assumed in March 2016 after serving the City of Los Angeles for thirty years. At HSAC, Jim strengthened the greater Los Angeles region’s crisis readiness, response, and resilience by convening and connecting the private, public, and civic sectors through collaborative partnerships, strategic alliances, research, and emerging technology.

A native of Washington D.C. and a veteran of the United States Navy, Jim began his public service to the City of Los Angeles in 1986 with the Los Angeles Fire Department. He was later appointed Interim Fire Chief (2013-2014). In 2007, Jim was appointed General Manager of the Los Angeles Emergency Management Department, where he led a successful departmental reorganization and restructuring of Los Angeles’ emergency management protocols and processes. From 2008 to 2018, Jim chaired FEMA’s National Advisory Council. 

Jim holds a Master of Leadership from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from Union Institute and University. He is an alumnus of the Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security and a Senior Fellow in the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Program on Crisis Leadership.