Nancy McNabb

Nancy McNabb holds a master’s in architecture (structures) and a bachelor of science in architectural studies from the University

of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana (UIUC). She is a registered architect in New York and Pennsylvania.

After graduation from architecture school, Ms. McNabb was a visiting assistant professor in the UIUC School of Architecture and a project architect in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Upon moving to upstate New York, she served as assistant director for Code Development and Code Interpretation, and was acting director for the New York State Department of State, Codes Division. Ms. McNabb moved to a staff architect position at Building Officials and Code Administrators International (BOCA) where her duties included facilitating code adoptions, conducting trainings on code interpretations, and representing the organization at legislative hearings.

Ms. McNabb joined the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in September 2001 as Regional Manager, Building Code Central Field Office, in Dallas, Texas. In 2005, she was named the director at NFPA’s Government Affairs Office in Washington, D.C., where she was responsible for working with congressional and federal agencies as well as allied organizations to promote the NFPA mission about fire and life safety. In 2010, Ms. McNabb became the manager, Building and Fire Codes and Standards of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Her responsibilities there including developing and implementing a NIST-wide strategy, including needed supporting research, to provide the technical basis resulting in improvements to U.S. model building and fire codes and standards, as well as relevant international standards, to support strategic goals in areas of critical national need, such as sustainability, energy efficiency, safety, security, and community resilience.

Ms. McNabb formed McNabb & Associates in 2017 and joined The Continuity Project where she continues to utilize her expertise in resilience planning and represent requests before agencies and organizations tied to the building and safety community. She currently serves on the board as secretary on the National Institute of Building Science (NIBS) Multi-Hazard Mitigation Council, and is active in developing, implementing, and maintaining strategic partnerships and strong working relationships at the local, state, and national levels.