Ben Wicker

Ben Wicker is a Resilient Housing Manager with Louisiana’s Office of Community Development (OCD). He is currently responsible for the development, implementation, and closing of all nine buyout programs underway in the State of Louisiana. These projects include the Isle De Jean Charles Resettlement, the Pecan Acres Resettlement, and the Statewide Buyouts Program. Previously, Ben worked with regional and local leaders to develop and implement the Louisiana Watershed Initiative (LWI), which aims to manage future flood risk in Louisiana through watershed-based solutions. Established in 2018, the LWI utilizes science, engineering, objective decision-making, and unprecedented coordination and cooperation to reform the state’s approach to flood mitigation. He is also a former senior analyst for WashingtonExec, a leading on-line media and membership-based organization for senior level executives in the government contracting space, based in Washington, DC. His focus was both revenue generation and long-term account goals in accordance with WashingtonExec’s vision and on simultaneously developing and maintaining relationships with multiple government contractors and public officials, both appointed and elected. He also managed a team of reporters and interviewed dozens of federal contracting executives for WashingtonExec’s 13,000 daily readers. He graduated from the University of Richmond in Virginia (BFA, 2014) with a major in PPEL (Politics, Philosophy, Economics, and Law) and a concentration in Political Science.