STOW — More than three dozen fire service leaders from across Massachusetts, including Grafton Fire Chief Eric Mathieu, recently graduated from the 28th class of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy’s Chief Fire Officer Management Training Program.
The four-month program for new chief officers and chief officer candidates is delivered jointly by the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy and the University of Massachusetts Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management. Through classroom instruction and out-of-class assignments, the course delivers intensive training in the non-fire suppression aspects of managing a municipal fire department.
“The chief fire officer program is a tremendous opportunity for new chiefs and rising officers,” said State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey, who graduated from the program in 2002. “The rigorous instruction in such a wide variety of topics will help these graduates provide the leadership that their departments and communities deserve. Completing the program is a major accomplishment, and I want to congratulate them on their initiative and dedication to professional development.”
The program covers a spectrum of topics considered essential for effective public sector management — human resource management, ethics, executive leadership, governmental and organization structures, information management, customer-focused strategic planning, legal issues, budgets and public finance, community awareness and labor relations. The curriculum helps fire officers improve their ability to lead and manage personnel, understand employees’ needs and problems, communicate effectively to a variety of audiences, and leverage inter-agency cooperation.
The Massachusetts Firefighting Academy, a division of the Department of Fire Services, offers this program tuition free.
The 2022-2023 graduating class was drawn from the fire departments of Acushnet, Barnstable, Belmont, Billerica, Bridgewater, Chelsea, Easthampton, Everett, Fitchburg, Framingham, Grafton, Granby, Halifax, Hanover, Holyoke, Hyannis, Ipswich, Lakeville, Maynard, Medway, Methuen, New Bedford, Newton, North Andover, North Attleboro, Oakham, Palmer, Pelham, Russell, Seekonk, Sturbridge, Tewksbury, Three Rivers, Truro, West Brookfield, Westport, and Worcester, where its members serve as chiefs, deputy chiefs and captains.
