Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell Appointed U.S. Fire Administrator
President Biden Picks Public Safety Visionary to Help Enhance
Responder Preparedness and Community Resilience
Will Use Experience and Data Skills to Help Build a Culture of Preparedness and Safety Aligning with Administration’s Focus to Build Back Better
Washington, D.C. - America’s newest fire administrator, one of the
nation’s leading experts on fire and emergency services, is focused on
assisting fire departments’ modernization efforts to better serve their
communities.
Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, appointed by President Joe Biden as the ninth
United States fire administrator, took office Oct. 25.
Moore-Merrell recently resigned as the president and CEO of the
International Public Safety Data Institute (IPSDI), a position she held
since 2019. At IPSDI, she worked with fire departments and other agencies to gather,
organize and translate community data to improve how emergency responders evaluate
risks, deploy resources and respond to emergencies.
Prior to IPSDI, she served in multiple capacities as a senior executive at the International
Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) for 26 years, responsible for front-line interaction with
elected officials, fire chiefs, industry executives, law enforcement agencies and local
unions nationwide.
With decades of hand-on experience and academic studies, Moore-Merrell is a big
advocate of leveraging technology to provide lifesaving insights across the nation. She is
considered an innovator in executive leadership, emergency response system evaluation,
public safety resource deployment, community risk assessment, data science/analytics,
strategic planning, costs and benefits analysis, advocacy, consensus building, policy
development and implementation, and generational differences in the workplace.
Moore-Merrell started her career as a firefighter/paramedic in Memphis, Tennessee, and
has led research teams made up of international fire service organizations and other
partners including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(CDC/NIOSH), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the
Underwriters Laboratory (UL), the Urban Institute, the University of Texas, Worcester
Polytechnic Institute and the Commission on Fire Accreditation International.
Her landmark reports and other tools to improve residential and high-rise fireground
operations, community risk assessment, and fire and EMS resource deployment all help
drive executive decision making. These reports and other resources have changed the face
of fire and EMS deployment in countries throughout the world.
Moore-Merrell also has managed emergency response system evaluation project teams,
including secure data procurement, geographic information systems (GIS) analysis and
workload analysis in hundreds of fire departments throughout North America.
She recently was awarded honorary membership in the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs
Association for her expertise in areas of fire prevention, fire suppression and other related
disciplines. It was only the fourth time an individual was presented this honor in the
54-year history of the organization.
At IPSDI, Moore-Merrell has worked to ensure firefighter health and safety is at the
forefront of all efforts, including developing the NFORS mobile app for tracking
on-the-job toxic exposures that can be downloaded and used for free by every firefighter
in North America.
The IPSDI Board of Directors is conducting a search for the next CEO and will announce
the new leader in the coming weeks.
The IPSDI mission is to enhance public safety resource deployment, operations, and firefighter
health and safety by using data analytics to provide actionable lifesaving insights. The IPSDI team
includes fire service leaders, researchers, developers and data scientists.
Available IPSDI data tools include FireCARES, www.firecares.org, NFORS Analytics and the
NFORS Exposure Tracker, www.nfors.org.
The IPSDI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit data science and research organization formed by a
collaboration of fire service, research, policy and academic organizations.
More information can be found at www.i-psdi.org.
Contact
Melissa Knight, Director of Operations
International Public Safety Data Institute
melissa@i-psdi.org
www.i-psdi.org
Twitter @TheIPSDI
Facebook @TheIPSDI
