Adrienne L. Sheldon

Adrienne Sheldon is a Senior Director and serves as Tidal Basin’s Mitigation Practice Lead. She is a seasoned leader in floodplain management and natural hazard mitigation, drawing on more than 25 years of experience across federal, private, and consulting sectors.

Adrienne excels at developing and executing large-scale, multidisciplinary programs that advance flood resilience and community safety. Her strong technical expertise helped shape national floodplain programs, supported modernization of federal systems of record, and facilitated the development of resilient building standards.

Before joining Tidal Basin, Adrienne served as the Program Effectiveness Branch Chief (2023-2025) and previously as the Regional and Field Support Branch Chief (2017-2023) within FEMA’s Floodplain Management Division. She helped design and implement the strategic direction, operations, and budget planning for FEMA’s Floodplain Management Program, which included 150 federal staff, over 100 augmented staff from state partners, and $40M+ in contracts and grants annually. She guided significant initiatives, including the establishment of a $75M FAR-based contract for the Community Rating System (CRS) and the research of potential updates to National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) minimum floodplain management criteria, which affect nearly 23,000 communities nationwide. She also supervised the modernization of FEMA’s federal system-of-record for NFIP data and contributed to the development of a multi-year Floodplain Management Strategy. Her duties also included regularly briefing senior government officials, providing strategic recommendations on policies and program initiatives, and leading efforts to align annual operational plans and budgets with FEMA’s broader resilience goals.

Before joining FEMA, Adrienne gained extensive experience in resilience, hazard mitigation, and disaster management through leadership roles. From 2019-2017, she served as the Building Resilience Team Lead at AECOM, overseeing a team of engineers and planners focused on NFIP regulations, hazard mitigation, and resilient design. She led efforts to develop and update many FEMA technical guidance documents, training, and resources on hazard-resistant construction, and conducted post-disaster building performance evaluations to inform best practices and potential code improvements for a $35M FEMA contract.

Prior to that, she served as a Civil Engineer and Project Manager at URS Corporation, where she specialized in FEMA-related projects, led teams in feasibility reviews for disaster mitigation grants, updated FEMA software for floodplain management, and supervised field teams for damage data collection and recovery mapping.

Earlier in her career, as a Project Engineer and Manager at Greenhorne and O’Mara (now Stantec), she managed USACE, FEMA, and local government resilience programs, where she designed water resources projects and developed community hazard mitigation plans, laying the groundwork for her expertise in disaster preparedness and recovery.

Adrienne is recognized for her commitment to mentoring emerging professionals and fostering a collaborative work environment. As a seasoned professional with extensive experience in disaster resilience, hazard mitigation, and floodproofing, she has presented at numerous national conferences and workshops. Key contributions include workshops on FEMA’s Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA) Section 1206, substantial damage procedures, building code changes post-Hurricane Sandy, and co-authoring FEMA’s Floodproofing Non-Residential Buildings guide.

Her credentials include a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Maryland, licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE), and certification as a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM). She is also active in professional engineering and flood management organizations, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM), and is a proud Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society alumnus.

Adrienne’s goal is to serve as a trusted partner to agencies and communities navigating the evolving landscape of hazard mitigation and floodplain management, delivering reliable solutions and advancing best practices for a safer, more resilient future.