June 29, 2026

Michael Rojas joins BeforeDuringAfter as new director

TEXSAR has named Michael Rojas as executive director for BeforeDuringAfter, our emergency preparedness and response resource. Rojas brings extensive real-world disaster response experience and a deep commitment to community resilience to the team.

About BeforeDuringAfter

BeforeDuringAfter is a free online resource to help Texas’ small businesses prepare for, respond to and ultimately recover from natural disasters and other emergencies. In June 2024, BeforeDuringAfter.com was launched by a coalition of businesses and organizations, including Texas Mutual, TEXSAR, the Institute for Government Innovation at Texas State University, Wells Fargo, OneStar Foundation and The Dallas Federal Reserve Bank.

Get to know Michael Rojas

Over the course of Rojas’ career, he has supported more than 18 federally declared disaster responses, leading large-scale operations involving thousands of individuals across the country. His work has earned recognition from local, state and federal partners, including commendation from AmeriCorps NCCC leadership.

Rojas’ leadership in disaster response is rooted in his AmeriCorps service, where he began as a member of the Iowa Habitat for Humanity Mobile Response Team, responding to tornadoes and floods before advancing into a staff role mentoring new members. Rojas served as incident commander during Iowa's 2020 statewide derecho, a severe thunderstorm event, under a FEMA mission assignment, and later joined Volunteer Iowa as a disaster program officer.

Rojas then expanded into national deployments, supporting Nevada’s health campaigns, leading Hurricane Ida response efforts in New Jersey and serving as incident commander for Missouri flooding and Hurricane Ian in 2022. In this role, Rojas will focus on expanding awareness and implementation of BeforeDuringAfter throughout Texas, helping ensure businesses and communities are better prepared when disasters strike. We look forward to seeing the impact that Rojas will have in helping build a stronger, safer Texas.