Captain RJ Dowd (right) recently received his Leadership Institute certification from South Carolina State Firefighters’ Association (SCSFA) President Joshua Holzheimer (left).
Courtesy of S.C. State Firefighters’ Association
NEWBERRY — Captain RJ Dowd recently received his Leadership Institute certification from South Carolina State Firefighters’ Association (SCSFA) President Joshua Holzheimer.
Dowd was selected by the SCSFA Advisory Committee to a part of the 2022-2023 Leadership Institute. The program selects future and current fire service leaders to be a part of this program annually. This year’s program had 15 individuals selected. The group consisted of leaders from the coast to the upstate.
The program involves visiting departments across the state to learn about the different operations and management of various organizations. During this year’s class, Dowd visited some of the largest and smallest departments in the state. Departments that are heavily funded and some that have minimal funding for their fire service.
“Seeing the various operations opens the eyes of these fire service leaders to many different styles of leadership and tactical considerations based on funding,” Fire Chief Gene Shealy said.
Also during his time, Dowd visited the Pierce Fire Truck plant in Wisconsin.
“The networking and relationship building with firefighters across the state was the best part of the program,” Dowd said.
As part of the program, Dowd had to present a group and individual project. His group project involved improvements to the “move over” law for emergency vehicles, while his individual project concentrated on bridging the gap between different generations in the fire service.
“Captain Dowd spent a lot of time away from home during the last year improving his leadership skills and the Newberry Fire Department is proud of his hard work and dedication to our community,” Shealy said.
Elyssa Haven is the Public Relations Coordinator at the City of Newberry.