AidFinder, an AI-powered disaster recovery platform that helps residents and business owners navigate aid resources, has named emergency management veteran Berl D. Jones, Jr. as chief emergency strategist.
Jones has more than four decades of disaster response experience at the local, state and federal levels. In his new role, he will help scale AidFinder’s disaster-response capabilities to serve survivors nationwide, according to a news release.
“Berl ran Individual Assistance at FEMA. He knows exactly where survivors get stuck in that process and why,” stated Jonathon Nostrant, co-founder and president of AidFinder, in the release. “There is nobody better to help us fix it from the outside.”
“Throughout my career, I’ve watched as disaster assistance has evolved from paper forms and call centers to online and mobile registration processes, all in an effort to make it easier for families to get the assistance they need. I’ve also seen firsthand how confusing and overwhelming the process can be,” Jones stated in the release. “I’m energized by the work of the AidFinder team and the opportunity to bring my decades of experience, along with my understanding of how governments, agencies and private companies work together, to build a platform that makes it easier for survivors to obtain the help available to them.”
Jones brings extensive emergency management experience to the newly created role, including as a retired federal Senior Executive Service (SES) official and Certified Emergency Manager. He served as the division director for FEMA’s Individual Assistance Programs and, most recently, as the executive administrator of FEMA’s Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, leading a 500-person workforce. He has supported response efforts for major disasters including the 9/11 attacks, Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina and Sandy and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“AidFinder was born from Jonathon Nostrant’s own experience in the Palisades Fire, when his home was damaged, his community was lost, and he found himself navigating a disaster aid system across America that is scattered across disconnected programs, each with its own antiquated website, rules and eligibility,” the release stated. “Determined that no survivor should have to become their own case manager, he built AidFinder to close that gap.”
