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Board of Directors & Advisory Committee

Chief Joanne R. Rund

Secretary of the Board of Directors

Chief Joanne R. Rund

Joanne recently appointed Fire Chief of Baltimore County Fire Department in Maryland (BACOFD) began her career in 1987 in Howard County Maryland. Baltimore County has a population of 800,000 and a combination department of nearly Two thousand career and volunteer operational firefighters.

As the department’s first permanently appointed female Chief, Joanne manages a staff of uniform and civilian employees. She has served in a leadership role for 26 of her 32 years of service, has held a leadership position in Operations, Administrative Service, Education and training, and the Office of the Fire Chief. Additionally, has served as an instructor. Before joining the career fire service in 1987, Chief Rund served as a Volunteer Emergency Services Provider (EMS) in Carroll County MD, and in 1993 obtained her instructor certification. Additionally, she has served as an instructor evaluator.

Joanne holds numerous certifications in the field of health and safety, and is a level 4 certified command officer. She obtained the National Fire Academy’s Advanced Safety Officer Program certification, and serves as Associate Faculty at the University of Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute. Also at the State level, Joanne was Committee Chair for the Maryland Metro Chiefs Life Safety Committee, whose mission is to educate all Maryland EMS providers on the 16 Life Safety Initiatives, and reduce the line of duty deaths in the state.

At the national level, in 2009 Joanne began working with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation where in 2014 she was named Region III Advocate Coordinator and remains actively on their instructor roster, passionately working toward reducing line of duty deaths throughout our nation. In 2006, Joanne was elected to serve her first term as a Director At Large with the Safety Health and Survival Section where she continues to serve. Since that election Joanne has worked on many initiatives such as the Roadmap to Wellness, budget committee, Strategic plan and has served on the election committee which names the candidates that the section promotes for the selection of the IAFC executive board positions. In 2018 Joanne was accepted into the prestigious International Association of Fire Chief’s Fire Service Executive Development Institute Program.