Kevin D. Zumwalt
Assistant Director
The Assistant Director of the Fire and Rescue Training Institute is responsible for selected management responsibility for daily operations of the Institute along with oversight of special projects and conferences. The position reports to the Institute Director and provides assistance and back-up to the Director in the accomplishment of the programmatic objectives of Extension training and education mission.
In addition, Kevin's responsibilities include coordinating annual statewide conferences, and projects that fall outside the normal realm of the Institute. These include the Winter and Summer Fire Schools and the State Instructor Conference. Other projects have included the FEMA Region VII Training Resource and Data Exchange and North American Fire Training Directors annual meetings; ITV Video conferences; and a variety of courses and meetings with a statewide audience. In addition, Kevin coordinates all MU FRTI courses that fall under the NFPA 1006 Standard for Rescue Technician Professional Qualifications and NIMS ICS training for fire and EMS agencies.
Zumwalt also serves as the Institute's Information Management coordinator and is responsible for the development of database solutions to run the daily operations and their integration within the University system. He also is responsible for recommending computer hardware and software purchases, maintaining computer systems and acts as liaison to the campus Information Access Technology Services Unit.
Zumwalt was instrumental in adapting a conference management system based upon the principles of the Incident Management System (IMS) which is used extensively in fire and other emergency services to manage incidents. The model is used to coordinate many of MU FRTI's events and serves as a learning tool to many faculty, staff and participants of our events.
Zumwalt has consulted with the International Association of Fire Chiefs and other national and state fire service organizations on conference management techniques. He is a past planning chief with Missouri Task Force 1, a FEMA sponsored Urban Search and Rescue Team; and planning section chief for Region F of the Missouri Statewide Mutual Aid Overhead Team.
Zumwalt began his fire service career as a volunteer with the St. Clair Fire Protection District in 1975. In 1984 he became a part-time field instructor for the Fire and Rescue Training Institute; and in 1986 was asked to coordinate the Winter and Summer Fire Schools. He served for five years as a paid firefighter with the Mehlville Fire Protection District before taking a full time position with MU FRTI in 1994.
Zumwalt holds an Associate degree in Fire Science from East Central Community College.
