Overview of the newly appointed members

The SFPE Foundation, a charity aiming to deepen the understanding of fire and its interplay with social, natural and built environments, recently announced the appointment of four new governors to its board. The new governors were appointed in May.

The new appointments include Sean Donohue, Vice President of Fire & Life Safety, West, at WSP USA; Ann Jeffers, an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan; Steve Kerber, Vice President & Executive Director of the Fire Safety Research Institute at UL Research Institutes; and Chris LaFleur, the Manager of Risk & Reliability Analysis for Sandia National Laboratories.

Mission and focus of the SFPE Foundation

On the purpose of the SFPE Foundation, Leslie Marshall, the Director, stated: “From funding research on the environmental and health impact of large-scale fire events, to studying opportunities for better integration of fire protection systems in building information modelling, to expanding resources on fire risk mitigation in the wildland urban interface, to understanding the impact of water supply and climate change on fire protection systems, and so much more, we continue to enhance the scientific understanding of fire. With the leadership of experts like Sean, Ann, Steve, and Chris – along with the support of generous donors and partners – we are expanding our impact and working to achieve our mission of engineering a resilient, sustainable, fire-safe world for all.”

Recognising outgoing members and funding the Foundation’s work

The SFPE Foundation also took the opportunity to recognise the invaluable contributions of outgoing Governors Kathleen Almand, Justin Biller and Bryan Klein.

The foundation’s programmes and research are financed through the support of donors, which include SFPE chapters, members, governmental agencies, leading companies and organisations, among others. It was pointed out that demand for research funding from the foundation significantly surpasses available funds. To manage this, the foundation periodically invites research proposals through both open calls and specific requests for proposals.