The International Association of Fire Chiefs has announced that Augusta Fire Chief/EMA Director Antonio Burden was selected for the highly competitive Fire Service Executive Development Institute.
Burden contended with fire chiefs and officers from across the U.S. and Canada to be chosen as a member of the 2022 program, according to a news release.
Selected as Augusta’s 18th fire chief in July 2021 after spending more than 27 years at DeKalb County Fire-Rescue, Burden is a part of several high-level fire-rescue industry-related groups. He was recently selected to join the state’s Traffic Incident Management Enhancement board, and he is on IAFC’s Terrorism and Homeland Security Committee.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for me to learn and collaborate with my peers and bring those best practices back here to Augusta,” said Burden. “This experience will not only better my leadership here at the Department, but ultimately will improve the emergency services for the people of Augusta, Georgia.”
This is the 10th year that the Motorola Solutions Foundation has provided the IAFC with a grant to fund the program.
The Fire Service Executive Development Institute is a year-long leadership development program implemented by the IAFC. It is considered the premier career-and-leadership development program that provides new and aspiring chiefs with the tools they need to have successful and productive tenures, the news release said.
The members of the group will meet four times in the coming year. One of the meetings will take place at the Fire-Rescue International Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Between onsite sessions, the cohort group will communicate online.
