Lynn Tierney

Senior Advisor, Crisis Communications

With a career spanning almost 40 years, Lynn Tierney is one of the most experienced crisis communications experts in the country.  Prior to joining Blue Moon Consulting Group, Lynn was Vice President of Communications for the ten campus University of California system.

Lynn began her career in emergency management in Massachusetts before moving to New York where she held a number of communications roles at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owner and operator of John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark International airports, the World Trade Center, and many other high profile transportation facilities.  Assigned to the Port Authority Police, she managed communications for high profile hijackings, airplane crashes, and was a key spokesperson for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

In 1996, Lynn was appointed Deputy Fire Commissioner with the New York City Fire Department by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and served in that post for 6 years including during 9/11/01.  Nearly killed in the attacks, Lynn was a member of the top management team that Mayor Giuliani assembled to help lead the city through the rescue and recovery. She had primary responsibility for handling the families of the 343 firefighters who were killed in the attacks.  She later became the President of the Tribute World Trade Center Visitor Center at Ground Zero. Lynn also served as Assistant Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration in charge of Communications nationwide, with eight regional offices and a staff of 88.

More recently, Lynn was the Vice President of Communications for the ten Campus University of California system where she designed a new central communications and marketing department.  She also managed a range of complex, highly sensitive and high profile Board and policy issues including funding cuts and tuition increases, protest and civil disobedience on campuses, as well as the evacuation of hundreds of students, faculty and researchers from areas of conflict or natural disasters around the world.  In addition, she spearheaded crisis leadership and communications training for the top 300 staff, focusing on the nature of crisis leadership.

Lynn is currently Senior Advisor, Crisis Leadership at Blue Moon Consulting Group where she provides real-time crisis communications and decision-making support for clients as well as leads the firm’s educational initiatives on crisis leadership.