MAINE
Dwane Hubert ’94
Senior emergency manager, Maine Emergency Management Agency

A 22-year military career took retired Lieutenant Colonel Dwane Hubert (M.P.A. ’94) coast-to-coast, but he never lost his connection to his childhood home in Maine.

“The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence until you’ve actually been there,” he says. “I kept turning back and saying, some day I’m going to go home.”

After more than two decades of pining for jagged coastlines, whoopee pies and Moxie soft drinks, Hubert and his wife moved back to their home state.

“The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence until you’ve actually been there,” he says. “I kept turning back and saying, some day I’m going to go home.”

Today, Hubert is the director of Mitigation, Preparedness and Recovery at the Maine Emergency Management Agency. He and his colleagues are in charge of protecting the people of Maine during emergencies and disasters.

During a disaster, such as the 2007 flooding of the St. John River, Hubert and his team assist local and county officials in protecting and supporting residents.

“We provide any resources we can get our hands on,” Hubert says.

He also understands the importance of preparing people before a disaster takes place.

“It’s all about informing people on protecting themselves before something happens,” he says.

Part of Hubert’s job is preparing formal requests for a presidential disaster declaration. After assessing damages throughout and sifting through requests from each county, he and his team draft a letter for the governor to send on to the president.

He says his UMKC education helps him write letters worthy of the president’s desk.

“I became a better writer and correspondent [at UMKC]. That was always a shortcoming of mine.”