St. Paul, MN, July 15, 2008: The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education’s Executive Committee has selected the team of Barbara Tuccitto Warren and Nancy Franke Wilson to serve as Executive Directors of the Board effective July 14, 2008. The combined experience, skills and expertise of both Ms. Warren and Ms. Wilson has created an outstanding team for developing and managing the Board activities, administering the training and firefighter education activities, conducting and maintaining excellent communication, working with the legislature on public policy and seeking additional funds from grants or government programs to the favor of the Governor, Board of Directors, trainers, firefighters and other constituents of the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education.

Barbara Tuccitto Warren and Nancy Franke Wilson are ideally suited to carry out these, and other, important objectives having years of experience starting and managing organizations, communications, legislation, training, education as well as grant funding on all levels of government and private foundations. In addition, the team of Ms. Warren and Wilson are experienced working in a team environment and have others skills and experience such as public speaking, conference planning, program development and administration, a very wide network of private, non-profit and government professionals.

Barbara Tuccitto Warren has 17 years experience in board management, which includes the development and implementation of policies and human resources of the board and employees. Serving as an independently contracted Executive Director, she has managed the following organizations and their boards: Southern Anoka County Community Consortium (Joint Powers Agreement), Safe Communities Coalition, Elk River School to Work Partnership, Columbia Park Education & Research Foundation, Manufacturing Technology of Minnesota, MN Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia Association, Health Lifestyle Collaborative (Anoka Ramsey Community College), MN Community Health & Public Safety Alliance.

Ms. Warren has in depth experience in human resources, serving as a Human Resource Manager for Target Corporation and as an independently contracted Executive Director for numerous organizations. Barbara possesses extensive experience in budget development and management and fiscal operations. She has performed these duties as an Operation Manger for Target Corporation, President of a chamber of commerce and as an independently contracted Executive Director.

Barbara Tuccitto Warren has worked with many culturally diverse groups over the past seven years. She has managed several programs that were established to deal with the changing face of first ring suburbs. The programs were established in conjunction with the local school districts, cities, community education centers and faith communities. As the director for many state programs, along with managing two local chambers of commerce Barbara has experience in working with and directing and managing many boards’ legislative direction. The entities were:

MN Watch Your Car Program, the Department of Public Safety – Office of Traffic Safety, Department of Education, Department of Labor & Industry and the Southern Anoka County Community Consortium (Joint Powers Agreement)

Nancy Franke Wilson spent over eight years with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety administrating programs and projects from the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. In addition, Ms. Wilson was responsible for carrying out legislative requests and working on public policy issues on behalf of the Office of Traffic Safety and the Office of Justice Programs. During her tenure at the Department of Public Safety Ms. Wilson co-developed the highly successful Safe & Sober law enforcement campaign and Safe Communities program; both of which earned Minnesota national recognition and awards.

Ms. Wilson was responsible for NHTSA funding and programs for emergency medical services in Minnesota and worked closely with EMS funding, programming and legislative issues. She monitored the EMS Advisory Board for the Office of Traffic Safety/NHTSA and served on the work group to pass legislation that formed the EMS Regulatory Board, moving emergency medical services from the Mortuary Science division of the Minnesota Department of Health to a separate, legislatively designated Board.

Nancy Franke Wilson has been an independent consultant for over eight years working in the areas of health and public safety. Nancy’s work includes communications, social marketing, public policy and (grant) funding. She has conducted numerous grant writing seminars and trainings throughout Minnesota for EMS and public safety. Ms. Wilson has done grant seeking and writing for all levels of government, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Nancy Franke Wilson has worked on legislation and public policy for over fifteen years. During this last legislative session she worked on legislation that would allow municipalities to use photo-cop for red light running violations. In addition to red light running legislation Ms. Wilson worked on primary seat belt legislation and monitored several other bills relating to public safety. Ms. Wilson is especially skilled at developing collateral materials to support legislation including facts sheets, letters to the editors, media events and coalition building.

The immediate next steps for the new Executive Director team are to meet with key firefighting organizations and leaders, develop the office, web site and assist the Board with the execution of the statutory responsibilities of the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education. For more information please contact Board Chair Marvin Calvin at mcalvin@ci.willmar.mn.us, Barbara Tuccitto Warren twassociates@comcast.net or Nancy Franke Wilson at nancy@frankewilsonconsulting.com