Lauren Linville
Before becoming our Division Chief of Emergency Management for the City of Roswell in Georgia, Lauren Linville co-founded Optimum Consulting in 2019, a firm that provides emergency management & project management solutions for public, private and non-profit organizations. Armed with close to 20 years of project and emergency management experience, Lauren Linville has worked on a variety of high-visibility projects from: Corporate & political events, government, military, public/nonprofit events, and local community outreach. In addition to her accomplishments, Lauren Linville has been in the United States Coast Guard Reserves for 18 years. Attending boot camp in Cape May, NJ in 2005 and advanced to the ranks of Lieutenant Commander after attending Officer Candidate School in 2010 at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT.
Since then, she chose two officer specialties (career paths) in the Coast Guard, Human Resources and Incident Management. With her expertise, she has held many senior level positions to include Joint Base Cape Cod’s Senior Reserve Command Officer, responsible for the unit’s reserve force and mobilization planning. Lauren Linville has worked on multiple natural disasters such as: Hurricanes Dorian, Matthew, Harvey, Maria and Irma. Lauren Linville is a FEMA certified Planning Section Chief and has obtained over 15+ FEMA certifications; to include Resource Unit leader, Situation Unit leader, Demobilization Unit leader, and Documentation Unit leader.
She is currently assigned to the United States Southern Combatant Command, where she is a certified Foreign Disclosure Office (FDO) in Doral, Florida. A position only held by three individuals Coast Guard wide.
After responding to Hurricane Dorian, Lauren Linville was appointed to the Board of Directors for Beacon for Change, a charitable organization based in Miami with a mission to support impacted communities within the Bahamas and all walks of life. In 2017, she was awarded the Volunteer Service Medal, the Humanitarian Medal, and the Commendation Medal for her service to Hurricane’s Irma and Maria. In 2019, she received the Achievement Medal & Humanitarian Medal for her service during Hurricane Dorian. In 2021, she was awarded the Armed Forces Service Medal & DHS Outstanding Unit Award for her role in the COVID response. In 2022, Lauren Linville was awarded a Commendation Medal and the Human Resource Management Award, given to only six employees agency-wide for project management & human resource innovation. This month, she was voted amongst her peers as the recipient of the Vice Admiral John Currier Award for outstanding leadership.
Lauren Linville is an adjunct professor for Florida International University, instructing for both the Public Policy and Administration and Disaster Management Departments. Teaching Courses ranging from Homeland Security for State & local Government, Risk Assessment, Intro to Emergency Management and Disaster Recovery.
Originally from Ohio, she has a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Legal Processes from Youngstown State University in Ohio, Executive Masters of Public Administration from Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, FL. She is also certified military paralegal for JAG. She is married to her college sweetheart, Ian Peshel for 17 years and has two amazing boys, Lyden (10) & Preston (7).