**Jerome Macdonald Receives \"Paul Gleason \'Lead By Example\' Award\"**

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="2.897222222222222in"
height="3.638888888888889in"}Jerome Macdonald has received the ***\"Paul
Gleason \'Lead By Example\' Award.\"*** Jerome is Regional Wildland Fire
Operations Safety and Training Specialist and received the national
award March 25, 2008, at the Southwest Area Type I Incident Management
Team Meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jerome was one of four individuals selected by the National Wildfire
Coordinating Group (NWCG) Leadership Committee to receive this national
award for 2007. The Committee cited Jerome\'s ***\"passion and
perseverance in\...wildland fire,\"*** specifically his ***\"development
and implementation of the Southwest Fire Use Training Academy
(FUTA).\"***

FUTA is Jerome\'s brainchild and he has served as FUTA Program Manager
since the Academy\'s first session in Fall 1998. Due to his ***\"vision
and leadership,\"*** the Committee said, ***\"FUTA is known as a
preeminent training opportunity in both the national and international
arena of wildland fire.\"*** His ***\"continued goal to ensure that FUTA
empowers and develops leaders of wise fire practices is recognized as an
accomplishment that supports the principles and values of the Wildland
Fire Leadership Development Program.\"***

The national award is bestowed annually in the name of Paul Gleason, a
leader and dedicated student and teacher of wildland fire. Paul
succumbed to cancer in 2003 following a wildland fire career that
spanned several decades. During his career, Paul developed the LCES
concept (Lookout, Communication, Escape Routes, Safety Zones) that
became the foundation of firefighter safety.

As a national interagency program, the Southwest Fire Use Training
Academy develops leadership skills, experience, and diversity in future
fuels program managers. Each Academy session, at least half of the
students\' time is spent in the classroom completing NWCG coursework
with the remaining time spent applying the classroom training to field
projects. FUTA uses existing fuels programs and facilities across the
country to expose trainees to a wide variety of interagency fuels
management programs. FUTA is in its eleventh year of operation, and has
graduated 714 participants since its first session in Fall 1998. The
Academy also conducts NWCG courses outside Academy sessions to help
students complete prerequisites.

Jerome\'s wildland fire career has spanned 3 decades, including work as
a Helitack, Hotshot, and Engine Crewmember; Range Conservationist;
Interagency Hotshot Crew Superintendent; Forest and Acting Regional
Fuels Specialist; District and Forest Fire Management Officer; and his
current training positions as Regional Wildland Fire Operations
Safety/Training Specialist and Southwest Geographic Area Training
Representative. He is also Deputy Incident Commander on Bill
VanBruggen\'s Southwest Area Type I Incident Management Team. Incident
assignments have taken him nationwide throughout his career and to
Australia in 2007. In recent years, his work has included establishing
Incident Command System compliance and Incident Management Team training
for the Fire Departments of New York and Phoenix. In 2007, he also
developed and instructed a Simulation Development course for training
specialists from national, state, and local governments in India.

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