Mr. Blais is an emergency management professional with over 11 years of direct emergency management experience and an additional 20 years of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Explosives experience. He joined the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Emergency Management in October 2024 as a Policy Analyst/site liaison and is currently assigned to the Office of Policy (NA-41). Before his NNSA assignment, Jim worked for FEMA HQ in the CBRN office as an Emergency Manager overseeing the www.CBRNREsponder.net program with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Mr. Blais has been a program manager and instructor for CBRNResponder since 2017, presenting numerous and varied courses in person and virtually across the country. Jim also spent countless years working with outreach and integration, in hopes of creating a common operating pictured shared by all. He is also a current instructor in CBRN Defense and Self-Aid Buddy Care as a Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force Reserves, where he oversees a 17-person emergency management flight. Additionally, Jim has worked at FEMA's National Integration Center on rewrites of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Response Framework (NRF) his expertise and experience are what guide his over-arching love of emergency management.