News

Photo is in the public domain, courtesy of the National Fire academy. 

Chief Rich Duysen returned this week after attending the first of four courses in the Executive Fire Officer Program (EFOP) titled Executive Development.  This ten-day course utilized lecture and a variety of activities, assessments, and consultation to identify leadership skills and challenges and develop tools to lead organizations through adaptive change.  To successfully complete the course, Chief Duysen must identify a problem affecting the Moorhead Fire Department and conduct extensive research, applied to answering questions about that problem. He has six months to submit the project.

This course is the first of four that Duysen will attend over the next four years in the EFOP.  Future courses will focus on community risk reduction, emergency management and executive leadership.  Each class requires the completion of an applied research paper identifying an issue affecting the local department or community.  The EFOP is considered a pinnacle in the professional development of chief fire officers, with many departments requiring completion of the EFOP program as a perquisite for employment as a fire chief.

Firefighter Trent Amundsen also returned this week after attending the course, Strategic Organizational Issues in Fire and EMS.  This ten-day course uses applied learning to develop organizational management tools for supervisors in the fire service.  Trent will have six months to complete a research paper investigating a problem he has identified in the Moorhead Fire Department to successfully complete the course.

Students submit competitive applications to attend the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg Maryland.  The cost of tuition, lodging, and transportation is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  The Moorhead Fire Department reimburses participants for the cost of a meals at the on-campus cafeteria as well as meals and luggage fees during travel. Students are eligible to attend one course per year under the FEMA reimbursement program.

Assistant Chief Wallin, the department’s training coordinator said, “The National Fire Academy presents some of the best management courses in the fire service.  We are proud of our members who choose to give up time they could be spending with family and friends to take advantage of this incredible educational opportunity.”

The National Fire Academy offers a variety of courses delivered locally and on-campus across a variety of disciplines in the fire service.