Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year

Let’s celebrate fire and life safety educators! Educators are key to the success of NFPA’s programs. That’s why NFPA’s “Educator of the Year” Award is so important. It gives educators the recognition they deserve for playing the lead role in making their communities safer.

Application deadline is February 21, 2014. Download the application. (PDF, 605 KB)

We are looking for fire and life safety educators who:

work for a local fire department.
use NFPA's Risk Watch®, Learn Not to Burn®, Remembering When^TM or Fire Prevention Week materials.
use NFPA materials in a consistent and creative way.
demonstrate excellence and innovation, reaching out to the community with NFPA materials.
view NFPA as the source for safety information.

The "Educator of the Year" receives:

$1,000 honorarium.
travel to Las Vegas in June 2014 for an award presentation at the opening general session of the NFPA annual conference.

The local fire department receives:

$1,000 donation to support public education activities.

2013 recipient
Tracy Koslowski, public education/information manager and fire marshal for the Drexel Heights Fire District in Tucson, Arizona, has been named the 2013 Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year.

A third generation firefighter, Koslowski began using NFPA’s Learn Not to Burn Preschool Program in 1993 when she was a volunteer at the Tucson Fire Department. She continues to teach it. She has been teaching Risk Watch and Remembering When for many years and has expanded Fire Prevention Week into Fire Prevention Month. During the past 10 years she has taken the campaign to all of the schools in the district, visiting more than 40,000 students.

In response to safety concerns in the community, Koslowski implemented a babysitting training course, which teaches kitchen safety, fire safety, CPR, first aid, poison prevention, and other life safety skills. She developed the Fire Fit Cadet Program, which includes basic firefighting skills, fire and life safety training, physical fitness, and nutrition classes. Drawing guidance from NFPA’s Remembering When program, Koslowski created the Senior Citizen Fire Academy. Also, she created the Public Education Volunteer Team to keep the district’s public education programs operating in the face of budget constraints.

Past recipients

2012 - Marsha Giesler, Downers Grove, IL
2011 - Maria Pelchar, Holyoke, MA
2010 - Beverly Thompson, Tucker, GA
2009 - Dayna Hilton, Clarksville, AR
2008 - Dawn Cull, Harrisonburg, VA
2007 - Vanita Krouch and Jeff Malkowski, Farmers Branch, TX
2006 - Tina Dotson, Asheville, NC
2005 - Tracy Sparks, Shelby, NC
2004 - Amy Hein, Glenwood, IL
2003 - Rae McMullen, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
2002 - Michele Clayton, San Pedro, CA
2001 - Connie Rowden, Roseville, CA
2000 -Michael Jordan, Troutdale, OR