Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday that a nonprofit executive and a candidate last year for city comptroller would take the helm of the city’s emergency management agency. 

Zach Iscol, a former U.S. Marine and the founder of two nonprofits that serve military veterans, who was deputy director of the field hospital set up at the Javits Center at the height of the pandemic, will be the commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. 

Christina Farrel, a 19-year veteran of the agency who has acted as the interim commissioner for the first several weeks of Adams’ administration, will step back to her last role of first deputy commissioner. 

Adams cited Iscol’s candidacy for comptroller, and short-lived candidacy for mayor before that, as well as his military service, as reasons for hiring him for the job. 

Iscol noted that he would have a steep learning curve in taking on the role, but said that he was ready for the job. 

“There's no doubt that I’m gonna be drinking through a bit of a firehose in this position,” he said. “The number one mission here is coordination of city agencies and bringing people together, and that is something I've done throughout my entire career and been a student of my entire career.”

Iscol’s appointment comes weeks after the city saw the deadliest building fire in decades, and as the emergency management agency prepares new ways to respond to flash floods in the wake of Hurricane Ida, in September.