Gov. Brian Kemp is naming a Department of Public Safety officer as the next director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency. In an announcement at the agency’s headquarters on Tuesday, Kemp tapped Capt. Chris Stallings to replace the retiring Homer Bryson, who has led the agency since 2016.
Stallings, who became a state trooper in 2008, is currently the Department of Public Safety’s director of dignitary protection, which means he oversees the protection of Kemp, among others. Stallings takes over while the agency is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the middle of hurricane season. Gov. Nathan Deal named Bryson as emergency management director in 2016. Before, Bryson ran the state prison system for 20 months.