Buzz Weiss

Background

About Buzz Weiss

Buzz Weiss’ professional career has spanned more than four decades in media relations, state government, and broadcast and print journalism. Buzz spent 34 years with the State of Georgia, the last 16 years as public affairs officer and spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), where he was responsible for media relations, legislative liaison, and radio/TV/video projects. He was also a regular contributor to GEMA’s Emergency Manager magazine and a frequent instructor in media relations at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center at Forsyth. During his years with GEMA, he served as the agency’s spokesman for a wide range of disasters and incidents across the state, including flooding, tornadoes, wildfires, the Heritage High School shooting and the 2002 Tri-State Crematory incident. He drafted and successfully worked for passage of Georgia's school safety law, the K-9/handler certification law, and the law that requires the use of unified incident command in disaster response. He also worked to establish strong, productive partnerships between GEMA and the news media; state, local and federal agencies; the private sector; and the volunteer community. Prior to joining GEMA, he was public information officer for the Georgia State Senate for nearly 20 years. He is also a former radio news director, and newspaper reporter and editor. Since his retirement from the State, he has been actively involved in a number of public safety and emergency preparedness projects, as well as volunteering as a news reader with the Georgia Radio Reading Service for the Blind.