Shane Ray, the mayor of Pleasant View, with one if its fire trucks.

Tennessee Fire Chief is "First on the Scene" as UMUC Partners with IAFC

By Andrea Martino

Like many in the fire service, Shane Ray, fire chief of the Pleasant View Volunteer Fire Department, in Pleasant View, Tennessee, seems to have a fire in his blood. It manifests as a passion for community service. Ray, only 30 years of age, also serves as a lieutenant with the Brentwood Fire Department, about 40 miles from Pleasant View—and, as it happens, as mayor of Pleasant View, as well.

Ray, who from the age of 12 dreamed of becoming a firefighter, says he "liked the service to the community and the people who were involved." That never changed. Ray has involved fire service in most stages of his life, and when other college students were attending frat parties and football games, Ray was living at a fire station in Berea, Kentucky, while pursuing his bachelor's degree in fire protection administration at an area university. His cooperative education placement enabled him to earn college credits for the support he provided to the department.

"Being at the Berea Fire Department helped me through college," said Ray. "Not only was it a benefit financially, but the environment provided a sense of normalcy I appreciated. I'd been doing fire service so long and loved it, so why stop just because I was attending college?"

That love of fire service and his success in the field—Ray has been in a leadership position since age 23—may well explain why he was chosen as the first International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) member to participate in the leadership program at UMUC's National Leadership Institute (NLI), a network associate of the Center for Creative Leadership, ranked number one in leadership training by Business Week magazine. It was a good match; IAFC's mission is to provide leadership to career and volunteer chiefs, chief fire officers, and managers of emergency service organizations internationally.

Because of the attention the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, brought to fire science leaders, the IAFC and the University have since partnered to establish scholarship funds for IAFC members to benefit from leadership training that NLI provides.

"September 11 changed everything," said Ray. "Though it was always important, the absolute necessity of everyone working together became very clear. The Pleasant View Fire Department, for example, serves two cities and parts of two counties, so we interact with four governmental bodies. Since September 11 and the leadership training at UMUC, I have imagined having to communicate with all four at once."

Because more than 350 firefighters and EMS workers were lost on September 11, Ron Siarnicki, former fire chief of Prince George's County, Maryland, and now executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, knows very well how important the interaction is.

"No public safety organization stands alone now because homeland security is a primary concern for the entire public safety team," said Siarnicki. "Today's emergencies require that fire chiefs have exemplary leadership skills to work effectively with the myriad of other government, military, political, and community agencies that they interact with on a daily basis."

IAFC President Randy R. Bruegman, fire chief of Clackamas County (Oregon) Fire District No.1, agrees.

"To meet the new demands on today's fire service, more diverse skills than ever before are required of anyone who heads these organizations. In the fire service of the 21st century," he said, "the nature of threats may have changed, but the need to rely upon highly trained, skilled individuals dedicated to protecting their communities never will."

According to Carol Dell'Amore, NLI director, scholarship recipients in the new program will participate in the internationally acclaimed Leadership Development Program® NLI offers. During the week-long leadership seminar, participants will engage in experiential learning exercises, receive feedback from various assessment tools, develop their coaching and mentoring skills, and participate in confidential, one-on-one executive coaching sessions.

"The NLI leadership program is for fire chiefs and chief fire officers," said Ray, "but it's also for everyone in the organization because it helps the chief professionally and personally, too."

Ray says because of the NLI experience, he has reexamined how he prioritizes his time.

"I spend more time communicating now," he said. "I'm better at providing feedback and my resiliency has improved. The '360-degree' evaluations were enlightening, and I learned that I always took things more personally than I probably should have—and then didn't have as good an understanding of the feedback people were providing me. Now I know I need to work on that by learning from these experiences so I can move on.

"The give-and-take that good communication provides is important in my personal life, too," says Ray. "And that can mean just as much as it does on the job."

Does resetting his priorities mean he won't have time for all three jobs now? Or for wife, Stacy, and three-year-old daughter, Analee?

Not a chance, says Ray, smiling. "The importance of being a fire chief is having a lot of good people around you," he says. "That's the important thing in any leadership position. And that's what allows me to do all I do."