Story highlights Ben Smilowitz: FEMA administrator's role is crucial as Hurricane Katrina showed

Trump should remember George W. Bush's FEMA appointee and look for a pro, he says

Ben Smilowitz is founder and executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) Eleven years ago, the shameful response to Hurricane Katrina was dubbed a "failure of initiative." While managing relief sites along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I saw how a country that was capable of "shock and awe" overseas failed to marshal and coordinate the awesome assets of this nation to help Americans during their darkest hours. The post-disaster autopsy pointed to many causes, including inept political appointees at the helm of agencies with life-saving responsibilities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator is only as strong as her/his relationships, ability to lead under pressure, and understanding of how each of the hundreds of puzzle pieces of public- and private-sector stakeholders come to life from dense paper plans during emergencies. The position should not be a prize for loyalty; it should be carefully entrusted to a professional with experience.

Ben Smilowitz

A governor of a state affected by a major disaster obviously has some understanding of what it's like to speak with emergency managers and even the president. Yet governors have a very different understanding of disaster response because their roles are very public: consoling the public, giving hugs, making promises.

When governors claim to be "experts in disasters," it's because they spoke at a press conferences or greeted a president for a photo-op on the tarmac. Or maybe it's related to public appeals for help or criticizing the federal response when things turn sour. But governors should not be confused with a state's top emergency manager who actually leads the response and understands how the many agencies and organizations are supposed to work together.

How many readers know the name of the current FEMA administrator? Not most, and that's because it's inherently not a political job. The public usually learns an administrator's name when there's a fumble.