Mayor Spencer Names Gregg Favre as New CEMA Commissioner

Today, Mayor Cara Spencer named Gregg Favre as commissioner of the City Emergency Management Agency, better known as CEMA.

Favre brings 25 years of comprehensive experience in emergency services, organizational leadership and strategic policy development to the City of St. Louis. In his current federal role within the intelligence community, Favre oversees national intelligence initiatives focused on threats from international terrorism, transnational organized crime and adversarial nation-states. He coordinates diverse stakeholder groups to develop and execute responses to emerging challenges in national and homeland security. Favre is tentatively scheduled to take his new position on Dec. 22.

“A strong and well-prepared CEMA is vital for the future of St. Louis, and with Gregg Favre, our city is bringing a public servant with decades of experience at high levels of government and public safety into this important leadership position,” said Mayor Spencer. “I am grateful that Gregg has agreed to lead CEMA in its next chapter.”

Favre’s career is distinguished by executive leadership positions throughout government, including deputy director and chief of operations for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, where he led strategic oversight of 15,000 employees and six agencies, including the State Emergency Management Agency, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the State Fire Marshal's Office and the Office of Homeland Security.

In St. Louis, Favre previously served as executive director of the St. Louis Area Regional Response System and as a captain and command staff for the St. Louis Fire Department, where he was the incident commander for major special events in St. Louis. His leadership in those roles strengthened regional preparedness, modernized interagency coordination and delivered measurable improvements in operational readiness and disaster response.

A U.S. Navy officer, Favre serves as a department head, leading interagency operations in support of critical Department of Defense and national security missions worldwide. He also brings private-sector risk-management experience as a former senior strategist for enterprise risk at a Fortune 25 corporation, where he developed large-scale resilience and continuity frameworks for operations in 37 states and five countries.

Favre completed dual undergraduate degrees from the University of Central Missouri. He holds a master's degree in homeland security from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and earned a master’s degree in emergency service management from The George Washington University, both of which were awarded with honors. He completed postgraduate crisis leadership training at Harvard University, where he coauthored and published field research on public safety strategy with faculty from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Favre has received numerous commendations for his professional endeavors, including the Firehouse Heroism Medal for a lifesaving act; the Medal of Merit for saving the life of a police officer; a State Troopers Award for Leadership; and the St. Louis Titan Award recognizing exceptional executive leadership. He is also a two-time recipient of the PFIA Lifesaving Medal for acts above and beyond the call of duty. Favre and his wife live in St. Louis with their two rescue dogs.

“Public safety and emergency management are fundamentally about trust; the trust that when disaster strikes, someone is watching, someone will warn you, and someone has a plan to help,” said Favre. “Mayor Spencer has given me a clear mission: build an agency worthy of St. Louisans’ trust through investments in professional staff, technology that reaches every neighborhood and partnerships that turn crisis response into coordinated action. St. Louis has weathered storms before, and this moment demands that we match our city’s resilience with systems that put public safety first and leave no neighborhood behind. It's an honor to be appointed to this post, and I'm grateful and humbled for the responsibility.”