Speaker

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  A.A. "Tony" Peña Jr. Region 5 Assistant Chief | Texas Division of Emergency Management
  

  A.A. "Tony" Peña Jr.

  Region 5 Assistant Chief | Texas Division of Emergency Management

  He is an Honorably Discharged enlisted Marine. He served in Law Enforcement from 1977 to 1990 with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, McAllen Police Department, Texas State Board of Medical Examiners, and the Hidalgo County Constable’s Office, where he currently maintains his peace officer commission as a Master Peace Officer. He was in the private sector for about ten years. He returned to the Sheriff’s Office as a Commander from 2005 until 2007, when he was appointed as the Hidalgo County Emergency Management Coordinator and interim County Fire Marshal. While at Hidalgo County, he also served as the Lone Star All-Hazards Incident Management Team Leader, Coordinator for the Rio Grande Valley Public Works Task Force, and one of the team leads for the Hidalgo County Wildfire Task Force. He is a Graduate of DPS Command College – Cohort 2 Class.
  In early 2011, he left County service and began working for the Texas Department of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management, as one of seven State Coordinators. In 2019, the Division was legislatively created into a state agency and placed under the Texas A&M University System’s umbrella alongside seven other state agencies.
  He currently serves as one of eight Regional Assistant Chiefs within the Field Response Section of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. He has primary responsibility for Region 5, which encompasses 18 Deep South Texas Counties and 80 municipalities. An area covered by three Councils of Government, 20,188 square miles, and about 2.5 million residents. It is the only region in Texas affected by natural and man-made threats from the Gulf Coast and the Border.
  He has responded to and led teams in many disasters, including floods, fires, mass casualties, hurricanes, public works, public health, law enforcement, and mass migration, during his career.