As Disaster and Failure Studies (DFS) Director at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Dr. Brown-Giammanco leads a multidisciplinary staff responsible for conducting fact-finding field investigations and studies focused on: building and infrastructure failures; successful building and infrastructure performance; evacuation and emergency response systems; and disaster recovery and community resilience. The results of these field investigations are intended to inform recommendations to improve codes, standards, and practice. Current investigations include the effects of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, and the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, FL. While the primary focus of DFS is on events that occur within the United States and its territories, NIST may conduct field reconnaissance of international events when lessons can be learned that are relevant to U.S. construction.

Dr. Brown-Giammanco's research has focused on natural hazards and their effects on buildings and roofing, the development of laboratory testing methodologies, and the development of tools, metrics, and statistical relationships to quantify and explain damage states, to advocate for better building practices and materials. She serves as a steering committee member in the development of a new ASCE standard on the estimation of wind speeds in tornadoes and chairs the EF-Scale subcommittee. Dr. Brown-Giammanco is also a member of the Standards Technical Panel for the Impact Resistance of Prepared Roof Covering Materials (UL 2218) standard.

Prior to joining NIST, Dr. Brown-Giammanco served as Managing Director of Research at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), where she led teams conducting full-scale laboratory and field studies on hail, wind, rain, wildfire, and roofing related projects. She has also held a Faculty Associate appointment at Texas Tech since 2010. Dr. Brown-Giammanco was an NSF IGERT Fellow at Texas Tech University, where she earned a PhD in Wind Science and Engineering, while studying the use of remote-sensing technologies to assess windstorm and wildfire damage, and conducting field research as part of VORTEX-II and with the Texas Tech University Hurricane Research Team.