Originally published Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell’s Legacy: A Game-Changer in Fire Service Leadership on by https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/emergency-preparedness/dr-lori-moore-merrells-legacy-a-game-changer-in-fire-service-leadership/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dr-lori-moore-merrells-legacy-a-game-changer-in-fire-service-leadership at Homeland Security
Game changer, disrupter, hard-charger. Those are terms usually reserved to describe the captains of industry.
But when you are Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell and head up a large federal agency like the U.S. Fire Administration and you revamp not only how the agency works, but change how the fire service works, all those terms apply. You are kind of a badass.
Don’t believe me? My interview with Moore-Merrell was sandwiched between her site visits to two major hurricane events and the U.S. Fire Administrator’s annual summit. And a schedule like that was nothing new. She’ll tell you that she’s a workaholic driven by performance, something she expects from her staff as well.
Moore-Merrell puts the “Charge” in hard-charger.
Our conversation also took place back when the 2024 U.S. presidential race was essentially a dead heat. The fire administrator is a presidential appointment. We’ll come back to that later.
In her four years as fire administrator, she accomplished a lot. She replaced the antiquated, clunky National Fire Incident Reporting System (which used to take two years before it delivered meaningful data about recorded incidents). She launched a global fire service conference where fire service leaders from around the world could share and learn. And she held annual summits to assess the state of the fire service and adjust USFA’s priorities.
Moore-Merrell also created a “one voice” culture where differing (sometimes competing) fire service groups can collaborate on common goals. She put wildland fire as a main priority. She put a well-respected researcher in charge of research and completely gutted the position and department by going back to the original law (the 1974 Fire Prevention and Control Act) that created the Fire Administration, and rebuilt everything based on what they were charged to do.
She’s a total badass. And was a badass before becoming the fire administrator. She founded, and was the CEO of, the International Public Safety Data Institute. She spent 25 years at the International Association of Fire Firefighters as the chief executive of research and data analytics. And before that? She served as a firefighter and paramedic at a time when few women entered the profession.
Moore-Merrell’s over-the-top work ethic was central to her reaching badass status.
It was her mother, educated only to the eighth grade level, who instilled that work ethic. Her parents, she says, taught her to never be a self-promoter and to focus on performing. When you perform well, says Moore-Merrell, other people will treat you accordingly and give you increased responsibility.
And despite her mother’s being gone more than 10 years, the memory of and lessons learned from her continue to inspire and drive Moore-Merrell.
A hard-charger who is in charge can be difficult to work for. That’s something Moore-Merrell came to terms with when one employee had the courage to tell her they couldn’t keep up with her.
“Yeah, it’s been a learning thing for me in that space to say, ‘Listen, everybody’s not you. Not everybody has the same drive. They need some time.’”
Part of learning how to give staff their space came from some of the high-level leadership training she had as the fire administrator.
So, once the employees are looked after, how is Dr. Lori looking out for herself? Or is she?
She was, after all, seeing firsthand all the major devastation first responders are toned out for. And she was responsible for the entire U.S. fire service. During her presentation at the Fire Administrator’s Summit, Moore-Merrell paused briefly to regain composure while discussing the trauma experienced by the first responders and victims affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton.
“Well, thank you for asking,” she told me. “I rely on the 3 Fs: Faith, Family, and Friends.
“Those three things and just being able to feel comfortable, to tell others and to have an emotional reaction in front of 500 people (plus 4,000 people online). Feeling comfortable in that space is huge. And that, she says, is what we have to contribute to each other.
“My husband understands the space. He retired after 31 years on the job. I know we can talk. And so confiding in him and having a family, that helps.
“And then I spend a lot of time in prayer. I’m a very faith-based person, and so I rely on that strength as well. Next is being able to lift up someone else and be there for them. That is motivational for me, and so I hold on to that as well.”
That type of resilience doesn’t come from taking a supplement or an online class. It takes time, and Moore-Merrell recommends that firefighters start building that network now.
“Build those relationships, have friends that you can confide in, and know you’re there for each other – no matter what. And there’s your family,” she says. “Your family doesn’t have to be blood relatives. Your family can be the family in your fire station. It can be a family in a neighborhood. It can be the people you work with every day.”
Exercise, diet and sleep are also areas she focuses on to stay sharp.
Exercise, she laughs, is not a problem as she and her staff are constantly on the move. Eating right can be a challenge when traveling so often — so that’s a work in progress. And she’s resolved to shut down earlier to improve her sleep time and quality.
“I’ve tried to prioritize sleep,” she says. “I’ve had leadership coaching that teaches that you can’t lead fully if you are tired and not rested. I need to go to bed by 11, because I’m a midnight or later person. So I’m just adding 15, 30 or 60 minutes to my sleep. That sounds really simple for a lot of people but it’s not for me: turning off is hard. I have to self-discipline. Turn off. I’m going to sleep now, phone down, computer down, TV off.”
So with her mother instilling the hard-charging, badass work ethic, who has been there to keep Moore-Merrell from jumping off the rails? Who have her mentors been?
“I’ve always had male mentors, because there weren’t a lot of women before me on the job,” she says. “Chief Denny Compton is one of the greatest mentors I’ve ever seen. And he’s mentored several strong women leaders who are leading at the national level — not the least of whom is Dr. Sara Janke [who was on the cover of CRACKYL’s Summer 2023 edition]. She goes to him for guidance. Chief Mary Cameli (current fire chief of Mesa, Ariz.), is another, is another who relies on him for guidance.
“Denny was there for me. He still is. I talk to him often. I will still call him to ask, ‘What do you think about this?’ I’m incredibly indebted to him for opening doors I could have never opened alone, and for believing that I could excel.”
Compton has a list of fire service accomplishments a country mile long. In addition to being a fire chief in Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz., he chaired the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation board of directors, and has spearheaded firefighter cancer research, firefighter education, and fire prevention efforts. He’s earned countless awards and accolades.
“The other is Chief Russ Sanders, who for many years led the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association. Russ would open the door for opportunities for me, particularly around the metro chiefs. So because of him, I was able to establish a reputation for delivering high quality.”
Sanders retired as Louisville’s fire chief and was a director with NFPA, as well as an executive director of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association.
Being mentored and getting the opportunity to show what she could do was more than just its own reward.
Moore-Merrell is understandably proud of having been able to “lift up fire departments from an understanding of research from real knowledge, give them exposure to data and help them understand those things. So people opening doors for me has, I hope, in turn delivered information and expertise that the fire service might not have otherwise had. And I’m really, really grateful to those two men in particular.”
When you survey the fire service, there are more discussions, more presentations, more articles, more research and more findings on firefighter health and wellness than ever before.
Are we in a pivotal moment in Fire Service history? One that future generations will point to as game-changing?
“I absolutely concur, because we are making real evolutionary change,” she says. “I mean, just think about what has happened with the stigma around mental health, over the past 10 years.
“Firefighters now know that it’s not only acceptable, but also appropriate for you to say, ‘I’m going to need some help. I can’t see one more dead child or go extricate one more mutilated body,’ or whatever it is that is cueing you.
The evolution around the impact of the things we can’t unsee in the field and holding each other up and being there for each other is incredible growth.
“And that’s just one thing. The collaboration between the organizations that are working on pieces of the cancer issue — whether it’s PPE, diagnosis and tracking, or the registry so that we can at least understand exposures long term. All of these different things in collaboration are monumental at this point in time. Watching the research evolve in our space is huge.”
One moment that always feels pivotal at the time is when the U.S. elects a president. Moore-Merrell was part of the transition team that helped President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris take office in 2021. That is in part how she was offered the fire administrator’s position. Again, this interview took place prior to the election and Moore-Merrell had to know if she would stay on as administrator if asked, regardless of who won.
“Well, depending on which way that goes. If I am asked, yes, I’ll obviously want to stay. We’ve accomplished great things during this administration. We have momentum and I don’t want to see that momentum diminished by a change in administration. For the Fire Administration, it’s important that we continue the course.”
Yeah, about those election results.
“I will say, however, that should it not go well for us at the election, I am putting in place sustainability and a team that can absolutely carry on and carry the momentum forward. So I think, either way, I’m very hopeful that the momentum we have within the nation’s fire service, and with USFA at the helm.”
Update:
Since our interview, Moore-Merrell has appointed Fire Chief Donna Black as deputy fire administrator and issued a statement that she would be stepping down as fire administrator on January 20, 2025 the day the Trump administration took office. What happens to the fire administration and its reach over the fire service remains to be seen. And so too does what happens to Moore-Merrell. Yet it is difficult to imagine this hard-charging badass change agent not finding another outlet for guiding the fire service.
This article was originally published in CRACKYL Magazine, now available here on pg. 54.
The post Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell’s Legacy: A Game-Changer in Fire Service Leadership appeared first on HSToday.
Originally published Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell’s Legacy: A Game-Changer in Fire Service Leadership on by https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/emergency-preparedness/dr-lori-moore-merrells-legacy-a-game-changer-in-fire-service-leadership/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dr-lori-moore-merrells-legacy-a-game-changer-in-fire-service-leadership at Homeland Security
Originally published Homeland Security