An Experienced City Planner Who Understands Local Government

An experienced city planner Who Understands local government, Eric Jenkins is a strategist who brings fresh, prudent thinking to Shawnee government. He’s also retired, and able to work full-time on helping businesses and families grow and thrive in Shawnee.

Eric Jenkins is a:
  • a 21-year veteran of the Shawnee Planning Commission and has served the community in other areas
  • a small business owner in Shawnee
  • a retired Colonel, US Army Reserves with 34 years of service, including active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan
  • a 30-year veteran of FEMA, with expertise in community preparedness, mitigation and emergency response
Full Biography

Local service and personal life
Eric has served for 21 years on the Shawnee Planning Commission. In 2011, Eric served on the Johnson County Charter Commission. In his personal life, he was born at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Eric is married with five children. He is a longtime member of St. Joseph Church in Shawnee. He has served his community in Shawnee since 1988 with four years on the Northwest Advisory Board to the Board of Education. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Missouri State and a Master of Arts from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

Small business owner in Shawnee
Eric retired in November 2009 to pursue his long-held dream of establishing his own emergency management consulting business.

Military service
Eric is a retired Colonel, US Army Reserves with over 34 years of active and reserve service. He had a very complementary military career. He has branch qualification in Infantry, Intelligence, Special Forces and Military Police and is a certified instructor. He commanded a Special Forces A-Team, a Military Police Battalion, served in a number of intelligence, operations and training positions at all levels of staff. He taught Command and General Staff College curricula. He is a graduate of the prestigious U.S. Army War College. Col. Jenkins’ FEMA background was extremely useful to 5th United States Army while he served as an Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer to the State of Missouri. In addition, Col. Jenkins assisted in training the staff and wrote deployment exercises for 5th Army’s newly created civil-military response Task Force Warrior. After completing 30 years of service, Col. Jenkins was brought back as a retiree recall for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was assigned to Multi-National Force-Iraq Headquarters and the Joint Center for Operations Analysis (JCOA) at U.S. Joint Forces Command. Later assigned by JCOA to the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Col. Jenkins led multiple lessons learned teams to various stateside locations, Germany, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Government service
Eric is a 30-year veteran of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). During his tenure with FEMA, Eric served in all operational programs of the agency. He made contributions as a manager and worker in the key areas of preparedness, mitigation and response.

In mitigation, Eric managed the National Flood Insurance Program and FEMA mitigation grant programs. In addition to floodplain management, he managed FEMA Region VII’s National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program and National Dam Safety Program.

In preparedness, Eric successfully managed the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program, Hazardous Materials Program, Fire Grant Program, FEMA state grants, and training and exercise programs. He chaired the Regional Radiological Assistance Committee.

While assigned to Disaster Response and Recovery Division, Eric served in several capacities. He was Chief of Operations, responsible for the FEMA Region’s response plans, training and regional ops center. He served as Federal Coordinating Officer for two Presidential Disasters and served as Deputy or Operations Officer on countless others. In this capacity, Mr. Jenkins delivered the Individual and Public Assistance Programs, Public Affairs, Legislative Affairs, Community Relations and other disaster response activities and programs. Leadership in the Federal response required frequent and close coordination with multiple Federal and State agencies and non-governmental agencies. During his time as Operations Officer and Executive Officer of the Division, Eric chaired the Regional Interagency Steering Committee.

In addition to his Regional Office responsibilities, Mr. Jenkins was an adjunct faculty to the Emergency Management Institute, instructed the Agency’s Customer Service Program and sat on the National Federal Radiological Preparedness Coordinating Committee in Washington, DC.