Following an extensive search, the American Red Cross has selected Christopher Losavio as the new Executive Director of the American Red Cross ‘Heart of the Valley Chapter’ serving Merced, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus counties. He assumed his role on July 27, 2020.
Losavio has been in the social services and non-profit field for over 15 years, with several years working in a leadership capacity. His tenure with the Red Cross started in 2013 during Hurricane Sandy where he served as a member of the Long-Term Recovery Case Management team. During that time, he served hundreds of families who were devastated from the hurricane. Through the programs and resources provided at the Red Cross, he helped them recover financially as well as start to rebuild their homes.
Starting in 2015, Losavio served as the Regional Director of Client Services and Recovery for the Greater New York Region, one of the busiest disaster regions in the United States. During this time his team managed the casework, disaster mental health, disaster spiritual care, and health services program for New York City, Long Island and several counties in Upstate New York and Connecticut. The team’s top priority was to ensure families had all of the tools and resources needed to make a full recovery from building fires, vacates, building collapses and natural disasters occurring in the New York region. He also managed several major national recovery efforts, such as setting up the Puerto Rico Evacuee Service Center that served thousands of families after Hurricane Maria. His team also created one of the first virtual casework hubs to support families across the US devastated by Hurricane Matthew and Harvey. In addition to this work, his team provided mental health support and financial assistance among other services to the families affected by the West Side Highway Terrorist incident.
Most recently, Losavio served as the Regional Director of the Service to the Armed Forces and International Services program for the American Red Cross of Greater New York. Over the last two years, he has managed a team of staff and volunteers to support the military and international community. In this role, he built and managed a team of over 200 volunteers. This team works to support the casework and resiliency for active duty service members, veterans and their families. They also provide support to five veteran hospitals, families preparing for pre or post deployment, individuals joining the military, and families who were displaced due to war or conflict.
Losavio holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Rutgers University.
In his new role, he will lead the team of 526 local volunteers to serve the more 1.6 million residents of Merced, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus counties with lifesaving programs and services.
“As we head into an exciting new era for our organization, we want to thank you for your continued support of the Red Cross mission to help our communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies,” said Jennifer Adrio, Regional CEO, American Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region.
