Chief Ernst Piercy, CFO, was honored by receiving the Ray Picard Award during the Center for Public Safety Excellence’s 14th annual awards ceremony held during Fire-Rescue International in Dallas, Texas. This award is aptly named after its first recipient and one of the founding fathers of fire and emergency service accreditation, Chief Ray Picard, who retired as fire chief of Huntington Beach, CA. Recipients are selected annually from a pool of nominations. The Award recognizes individual superior leadership and outstanding contribution to CFAI and to fire and emergency service accreditation.
Chief Piercy exemplifies the character, competency, and leadership exhibited by Ray Picard. Here is a highlight of his many accomplishments within the fire service:
- This year’s recipient has 35 years fire service experience and served 11 of those years as fire chief, retiring in 2014.
- The recipient holds an associate’s degree in fire science and is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program.
- The awardee is a graduate of the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
- The awardee served 9 years as Commissioner on the Commission on Fire Accreditation International and Chair for 2009-2012.
- Our recipient has been a Chief Fire Officer Designee since 2003.
- He’s currently a Peer Team Leader, Instructor, Mentor, Technical Reviewer for CFAI, and a Technical Advisor for the Technical Advisor Program.
- His fire department was the first fire department in the United States Air Force to become accredited.
- His department was selected by the United States Air Force as Fire Department of the Year. He was also selected by the Air Force as Fire Officer of the Year.
- This year’s award recipient is all action as he walks the talk for quality improvement. Words that describe him are: prolific instructor, leader, subject matter expert, best in the business, organized, and ambassador.
Chief Piercy has inspired, influenced, and ignites passion in others to succeed in the fire service. He epitomizes what the Ray Picard Award stands for, committed to providing the leadership to institutionalize continuous improvement in organizations.
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