Peg Carson, a public education specialist in fire and life safety with Carson Associates, Inc., became the fifth recipient of the Dr. Anne W. Phillips Award for demonstrated leadership in fire safety education. The award was presented by the non-profit Home Safety Council (HSC) at the Congressional Fire Services Institute’s (CFSI) National Fire and Emergency Services dinner here on April 7.
“Dr. Phillips participated in the commission that created the groundbreaking report, ‘America’s Burning.’ She was a pioneering surgeon who devoted her life to preventing fire injuries and death. The Home Safety Council is proud to recognize her achievements with this annual award,” said Meri-K Appy, president of Safe Kids USA and former president of the HSC. The HSC recently merged with Safe Kids Worldwide, bringing together top experts in public health and safety with a common goal of preventing accidental injuries to children. “Peg Carson’s career in fire safety education truly reflects Dr. Phillip’s passion and tenacity,” said Appy.
Ms. Carson has dedicated the bulk of her career in a leadership role developing, field testing, and implementing many of the leading national school-based fire safety education curricula, including the National Fire Protection Association’s Learn Not to Burn® and Risk Watch® programs.
“If you were to look behind the curtain of almost any significant national fire safety education program in the last 25 years, you would see Peg in a quiet, but unmistakable, leadership role,” said Appy. “In the words of one of her many fans in the field, she is the consummate teacher of teachers.”
Ms. Carson’s leadership was at the center of the HSC’s Assistance to Firefighter’s Grant-funded Home Safety Literacy Project and the Start Safe fire and burn safety program for low-income preschoolers and their families, both of which are taking root in communities across the nation according to Appy. She also helped develop the HSC’s Expert Network Academy, a free-online home injury prevention training program. The Academy is a comprehensive tool to help local fire departments improve the skills of their injury prevention educators and ultimately enhance the safety of their communities.
Currently, Ms. Carson is coordinating activities on behalf of the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), USA Branch, in support of Vision 20/20. This is an AFG-funded initiative to create cohesive strategies for fire loss prevention at national, state and local levels.
Safe Kids Worldwide is a global network of organizations with a mission of preventing unintentional childhood injury. Safe Kids Worldwide was founded in 1987 as the National SAFE KIDS Campaign by Children’s National Medical Center with support from Johnson & Johnson. Safe Kids Worldwide is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C. Nineteen member countries bring together health and safety experts, educators, corporations, foundations, governments and volunteers to educate and protect families.
The merger of Safe Kids and the Home Safety Council was completed in January of 2011. It brings together top experts in public health and safety with a common goal of preventing accidental injuries to children. The merger builds on the more than 40 years of combined experience of the two organizations in providing education and advocacy for preventing unintentional injuries, a leading cause of childhood deaths.
Under the Safe Kids Worldwide name, the organization is solely dedicated to the prevention of accidental injuries to children ages 0-14. Most Home Safety Council programs will consolidate within the Safe Kids USA organization.
