2026 Alabama Fire Service Professional Development Conference

We enjoyed another year partnering with the Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs for their Winter Leadership Professional Development Conference! A BIG thank you to Hoover Fire Department for all of their support.

Record attendance

📑 229 Alabama fire service representatives attended the free ISO: Public Protection Classifications class presented by Verisk. (Learn more about the course.)

🔥 378 Alabama fire service representatives joined us for two days of dynamic speakers and leadership development.

💼 71 companies supported the conference by participating as vendors and sponsors.

Celebrations of Success

• AAFC Career Fire Chief of the Year: Tim Love, ret., Alabaster Fire Department. Sponsored by NAFECO.
• AAFC Volunteer Fire Chief of the Year: Jonathan Adams, Heflin Fire Department. Sponsored by NAFECO.
• AFC Instructor of the Year: Assistant Chief Ricky Roberts, Prattville Fire Department.
• AFC Student of the Year: Sterling Sanders, Tuscaloosa Fire-Rescue (not in attendance).
• Get Alarmed, Alabama! Most Smoke Alarm Installations in 2025 (Career): Mobile Fire Rescue.
• Get Alarmed, Alabama! Most Smoke Alarm Installations in 2025 (Volunteer): Gainesville Fire Department (not in attendance).

Dynamic presentations

• John Mathews is a former Assistant Mayor, emergency management leader, executive, and author who transformed a past marked by addiction and homelessness into a career defined by resilience, crisis leadership during the 2016 Gatlinburg wildfires, and helping others build trust and purpose-driven growth. The Power of Trust: Leadership’s True Currency focused on building trust in the fire service, starting with self-trust, by strengthening daily habits, honoring personal commitments, and developing the “unspoken resume” that shapes credibility, confidence, and leadership under pressure.
• Chief Tom Jenkins is a former Arkansas fire chief and career firefighter of 26 years who now serves as a research program manager with the Fire Safety Research Institute, focusing on advancing fire service data through national initiatives. His session NERIS In Action: What We Know & What We’re Learning explored the launch of the National Emergency Response Information System, which replaced National Fire Incident Reporting System in 2025, highlighting lessons learned and the future of data-informed leadership in the fire service.
• Dr. Nicole L. Sawyer, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in New Hampshire who has worked exclusively with public safety professionals since 2005, serving as a training consultant for fire/EMS and police academies, supporting the NH State Police Peer Support Unit, assisting regional CISM teams, and responding alongside law enforcement as a crisis intervention specialist for SWAT and Negotiation Units. In This Is Not Your Daddy’s Fire Service, Dr. Sawyer examined how evolving societal norms, generational expectations, and shifting emotional demands are reshaping the fire service, exploring the impact on stress, trauma response, leadership, recruitment, retention, and the pursuit of professional and personal well-being.
• Battalion Chief Scott Hunter of Vestavia Hills Fire Department brought leadership experience in emergency response and interagency coordination, representing Alabama’s frontline role in large-scale disaster deployments through the Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs Mutual Aid Consortium. Mutual Aid in Action: Alabama’s Role in the 2025 Texas Flood Response reviewed how Alabama resources supported flood operations in Texas, showcasing real-world mutual aid coordination, deployment logistics, operational challenges, and lessons learned from the 2025 flood response. Scott is the current Alabama Mutual Aid System Chairman and has deployed to multiple disasters across the Southeast.
• Chief Gene Necklaus is an Alabama-based attorney and retired fire service leader who served as Fire Chief of the Scottsboro Fire Department. Drawing on his experience in public safety leadership, he now practices law with a focus that includes legal issues impacting fire departments, municipal leadership, and emergency services management. His session explored the legal aspects of leading a fire department from the unique perspective of a retired chief turned lawyer, addressing liability, employment law, risk management, policy development, and the legal responsibilities that shape effective command leadership.
• Allison Black Cornelius, President of the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, is a nationally recognized leadership expert who joined the organization in 2014 after serving as a consultant and interim executive director, bringing extensive experience in consulting, governance, fundraising, and public policy, along with advanced education through the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative and BoardSource. The No-BS Guide to Leadership: Influence, Impact, and Avoiding the Pseudo-Leaders challenged participants to distinguish true leadership from positional authority, using her Blackfish framework to examine accountability, emotional intelligence, decisiveness, and moral courage while equipping leaders to build resilient teams, strengthen culture, and lead with clarity in high-stakes environments.
• Deputy Chief Floyd Wise is the Deputy Chief of Training for the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire, with more than two decades of service since joining in 2000 after beginning his career with the York Township Fire Department in 1992, and he continues to advance the profession through his work with the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy and Combat Ready Fire Training while holding degrees in Fire Administration and Public Administration. Aggressive Command Supports Aggressive Firefighting: The Top 5 COMMANDments for a Safe and Effective Fireground examines the five critical actions every incident commander must take to prevent common command failures identified in NIOSH line-of-duty death reports, equipping chief officers to build organized, well-managed incidents that reduce stress, enhance tactical effectiveness, and ensure firefighter safety.

Sponsors & Vendors

Thank you to our sponsors and vendors for their support! We appreciate your continued dedication to strengthening Alabama’s fire service leadership.

• PLATINUM SPONSORS:
  • Emergency Equipment Professionals, Inc.: lunch
  • NAFECO: lunch
  • Sunbelt Fire: lunch
  • VITALExam: Challenge Coins
  • Williams Fire Apparatus: lunch
• GOLD SPONSORS:
  • Birmingham Freightliner Emergency Vehicles: lanyards; breakfast
  • SS&L Architects: breakfast
• SILVER SPONSORS:
  • Applied Information: break sponsor
  • Consolidated Traffic Controls: break sponsor
  • McSweeney Auto Group Clanton, LLC: break sponsor
  • Stryker Emergency Care: speaker: John Mathews, attendee bags
  • Whelen Engineering Co Inc: break sponsor
• SUPPORTING SPONSORS
  • The Compliance Engine by Brycer: speaker: Tom Jenkins
  • Coastal Rescue Solutions, Inc.: break sponsor
  • SERVS: Breakfast
  • FERNO EMS: break sponsor