Linda Langston

Linda Langston is the former Director of Strategic Relations for the National Association of Counties (NACo) in Washington, D.C. and presently leads Langston Strategies Group assisting small not for profit organizations and local governments with leadership and resilience building. Langston previously served as an elected official on the Linn County, Iowa Board of Supervisors from 2003-2016. She served on the NACo Executive Committee and as President of NACo. Her presidential initiative was Ready and Resilient Counties which led to the founding of the Resilient Counties Advisory Board at NACo.

Langston is the former chair of the Resilient America Roundtable for the National Academy of Sciences (member 2011-2020) and serves on the Societal Experts Advisory Network at NAS. She served six years on the National Advisory Council for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). She now serves as an adjunct instructor for EMI and has helped launch FEMA’s Just in Time training.

Langston now serves as Vice Chair of the Linn County Public Art Commission, the City of Cedar Rapids City Planning Commission, the Chair of the GEOS Institute in Ashland, OR and on the Linn Area Partners Active in Disaster (LAPAID). She continues to teach at the US War College.

Born in Chicago and raised in Chicago and Iowa, Langston graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois with a degree in history. She graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government program for State and Local Elected Officials in 2007. She now lives in Iowa and continues her work to cultivate resilience in communities.