By Steve Flaherty
MBFTE Executive Director
The MBFTE is proud to announce the latest graduates (aka “rock stars") of the Fire Service
Leadership Development Course. Nearly 200 fire service leaders have now attended this training over the last seven years, and the waiting list for future attendees continues to increase. This 44-hour course consists of four modules: Leadership Strengths, Human Resources, Marketing, and Finance, and also includes information from subject matter experts from MnFIRE, the Minnesota DNR, and the MBFTE.
Students attending the Fire Service Leadership Development course come from all across the state, representing every type of fire department: volunteer; paid on-call; combination; and career. Bringing such a diverse group of firefighters together one weekend per month over a period of four months not only fosters a multitude of learning points from each other and their organizations, but also builds a networking system with their peers that will last an entire fire service career and beyond.
This year's graduates include (left to right): Jeff Ingle (Grand Rapids FD); Chasse Critzer (South Bend FD); Lucas Goodin (Cromwell-Wright Fire Dist.); Alex Hanson (Faribault FD); Jeff Gendreau (St. Cloud FD); Gary Grote (Lexington FD); Curt Mackey (Excelsior Fire Dist.); Troy Lachinski (East Bethel FD); Brandon Anderson (Lakewood FD); Cody Yglesias (Wadena FD); Josh McGillvary (Willmar FD); Rob Indrebo (Shakopee FD); Jon Pritchard (Cottage Grove FD); Paul Hansen (East Grand Forks FD); Jeff Hortenbach (Plymouth FD); Rickard Dahlo (Waconia FD); Patrick Shorter (Worthington FD); Mike Warner (Red Wing FD); Josh Kunze (Austin FD); and Ryan Seykora (Owatonna FD).
The MBFTE's board members will determine funding for additional course offerings in FY22 at their regularly scheduled budget meeting in August. Please contact the MBFTE's Executive Director Steve Flaherty if you are interested in attending the Fire Service Leadership Development course in the future.
