oct dec

A Huge Heartfelt Thank You to Ron Steffens

On behalf of the International Association of Wildland Fire Board of Directors, Executive Director Mikel Robinson, the IAWF Wildfire and Communications Committee, the IAWF membership, Wildfire magazine readers around the world and the entire wildland fire community, we thank Ron Steffens for his many years of outstanding service as the Managing Editor of our Wildfire
magazine!

Ron Steffens’ name is synonymous with Wildfire magazine and always will be. Ron joined the IAWF Board of Directors in 2010 and shortly after that became the Chair of the Advisory Board for Wildfire . In the early years IAWF worked with Penton Media to publish the magazine as a supplemental to Fire Chief. In 2014 when Fire Chief was no longer published, we had to decide whether to continue publishing Wildfire magazine. It was a situation where a big commitment was needed, and Ron stepped up and took over as Managing Editor, allowing us to transition to self-publishing the magazine. Most likely, had Ron not been willing to take on this task, the magazine would have folded – thank goodness he did! For the past 6 years Ron has led the charge in publishing Wildfire; seeking out articles, working with authors, editing, working with the designer on layout, dealing with the publishing company on printing, working with ad sales staff, strategizing new ideas, and much, much more. He did this all while working full time as a professor at Green Mountain College, a seasonal Fire Analyst and Incident Commander in Teton National Park, and sitting on several boards. And during all of this, he traveled to Africa several times to conduct training and trekked across Australia, all the while continuing to manage the magazine despite limited connectivity and different time zones. Ron wears many hats and wears them well, and he does all these things while remaining gracious and kind.

In addition to being on the IAWF Board of Directors and managing the magazine, Ron sat on several planning committees for many IAWF Conferences and was the Keynote Speaker at the 2016 Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference in Portland, Oregon, with his talk being shown real-time at the joint location in Melbourne.

Everywhere Ron travels he looks for potential articles and authors. His creativity and diligence are endless, and he has never ceased to amaze us with the quality of each issue of Wildfire .

But all things change with the passage of time, and Ron has stepped down as the Managing Editor. The change will allow Ron to spend more time with his family and on other projects and pursuits. It is a big change for Ron and a big change for all of us, as well. For the past decade Ron has been dedicated to Wildfire magazine and all of us who have worked with him, all the members of IAWF, and all the myriad of people who have enjoyed and benefited from reading the many issues of Wildfire that he shepherded along to us — we could not be more grateful. Thank you,
Ron, for a job well done.

Ron will continue to be active in many facets of IAWF. He will especially be engaged with the IAWF Communications Committee, and he has generously agreed to help us transition to a new Managing Editor.