He served in the
North Carolina Army National Guard from 1977 to 1998, and received the
Meritorious Service Medal with three bronze
oak leaf clusters and the
North Carolina National Guard Distinguished Service Medal.
North Carolina Director of Emergency Management Sprayberry joined the Division of Emergency Management in the
North Carolina Department of Public Safety as deputy director and logistics section chief in 2005. In this role, he oversees the state's response to, and recovery from,
natural and
man-made disasters. Sprayberry is the director of the North Carolina Office of Resilience and Recovery, which was created by Cooper in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence to protect the state against future storms. Since then, the Office of Resilience and Recovery has expanded its scope to include rent assistance to people affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2015, Sprayberry was appointed to the National Advisory Council of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a three-year term by then-FEMA administrator
Craig Fugate. In August 2017, then-FEMA administrator
Brock Long named Sprayberry as Vice Chair of the council. He was elected to a one-year term as president of the National Emergency Management Association in 2017, after serving as the organization's vice president. In December 2020, it was reported that Sprayberry was under consideration by
President-elect Joe Biden to become the next FEMA administrator; however, Biden ultimately announced
Deanne Criswell as his nominee for the position. In November 2021, Sprayberry joined
Hagerty Consulting, an emergency management consulting firm. == Personal life ==