As this first ever appointed Director of the Mayor’s Office of Crisis Management and Emergency Preparedness for the City of Atlanta, Ms. Ria C. Aiken, joined the City of Atlanta in September 2015. Her expertise is in Operations, Change Management, and Crisis Management. As a member of the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Cabinet, Ms. Aiken coordinates overall preparedness, mitigation, and resilience strategies for departments with a $2B capital program budget, $600M+ operating budget, supporting 9,000 employees and 400,000+ residents.

Ms. Aiken most recently served in a lead role in the City of Atlanta’s crisis management, response, restoration, and recovery efforts related to the March 2018 ransomware attack; led overall coordination and cost recovery related to the March 2017 Interstate 85 Bridge Collapse, Traffic Mitigation, and Recovery Effort; and led all response, recovery, and reimbursement related to Hurricane Irma. She is also the Mayor’s Liaison for coordination and preparation efforts in support of Super Bowl LIII, being hosted in February 2019. Ms. Aiken is also a steering committee member and working group leader for the City of Atlanta’s 100 Resilience City Strategy Team and a member of the 100 RC Cyber Resilient Cities Working Group, powered by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative to address challenges and opportunities arising in metro Atlanta as a result of urbanization, globalization, and climate change.

Prior to joining the City of Atlanta, Ms. Aiken was a Vice President for Weston Solutions Inc., where she provided regional strategic direction and leadership for operations across six states throughout the Southeast and Texas with a national and international client base. While at Weston, she also served as Executive Multi-Cultural Liaison and Employee Engagement Lead for teams in India, Taiwan, and China. Ms. Aiken has a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Texas – San Antonio and will graduate with her MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 2019. She is currently pursuing her DRII Certified Business Continuity Professional and ISACA Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) certifications.