The Center for Campus Fire Safety - Advocates for Campus Fire and Life Safety

In 1998 Gail Minger’s son, Michael, was killed in an arson fire at Murray State University where he was enrolled in the university’s program for students with learning disability. Since this tragedy, Gail has worked tirelessly to promote campus fire safety in Kentucky and across the nation. She was the force behind passage of the landmark Michael Minger Act in Kentucky and was awarded the Cleary Campus Safety Advocate Award for this work in 2000-2001. In addition she was awarded the State of Kentucky Citizen Advocacy Award and made a Kentucky Colonel (even though she is a resident of Florida) for her contribution towards getting all public universities in Kentucky equipped with automatic fire sprinklers.

Gail has spoken at a number of programs on student fire safety and continues her legislative efforts in Kentucky. She also served as the Chair of the Governor's Task Force on Campus Safety in 2007 (Kentucky) and is on the Board of Advisors for Security on Campus, Inc. She also serves on the Executive Board of Common Voices with National Fire Sprinkler Association.

Alan Sactor is an Assistant Director with the University of Maryland Department of Environmental Safety and the University Fire Marshal. He manages a staff of 10 full and part time Deputy Fire Marshals, Fire Inspectors, and Fire Protection Engineers. He is appointed as an Assistant State Fire Marshal. He has over 30 years of experience in fire protection and the fire service including working as a firefighter/paramedic in the Washington D.C. area. Mr. Sactor is a principal member of the Technical Committee for NFPA 1037, Standard for Professional Qualifications for Fire Marshal.

He was a participant and presenter at the first USFA/NFPA Forum on Campus Fire Safety and the first National Summit on Campus Fire Safety. He delivers presentations nationally on campus fire safety, fire protection, and general safety. Mr. Sactor is a Certified Fire Protection Specialist and holds a Master of Science in Environmental Management. He has been with the University of Maryland since 1985.

Randall L. Hormann has been a fire fighter for the last 23 years. He spent 15 plus years in fire safety/public safety for larger division 1 schools in Ohio as well as years of consulting on student training programs and philosophy and campus fire safety.

Randy works teaching fire fighters code enforcement and instructional skills, and has lectured on campus fire safety at many colleges, universities and conferences including the NFPA.

Janet Maupin is a Deputy Fire Marshal for the Champaign, IL Fire Department. She inspects university-owned buildings and delivers fire safety education to students and staff at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign campus. She has been involved in making inspections for over 20 years. Currently inspecting university occupancies (laboratories, dormitories, major assembly venues, and classroom buildings), but with vast experience in making off-campus housing inspections (apartments, fraternity, sorority houses and privately owned dormitories).

Tom Chapin

Tom Chapin is the General Manager of the Fire Safety & Security Strategic Business Unit at Underwriters Laboratories Inc. He is responsible for the business initiatives of several key safety areas at UL, including: Fire Protection, Fire Services, Personal Protective Equipment and Personal Flotation Devices. He joined UL in 2001 as the General Manger of the Fire Protection Division. Previously, he had a 20-year career at Bell Laboratories (as part of AT&T and Lucent Technologies) holding technical and managerial positions associated with copper and fiber optic telecommunications systems. Prior to Bell Labs, he worked at The Upjohn Company for three years in a research position on isocyanate technology for thermoplastic and foam products. He received his B.S. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Polymer Science from the Institute of Materials Science at the University of Connecticut in 1977. Since 1980 he has worked in the areas of materials research, failure phenomena, copper and optical fiber technology, and fire and corrosion research. He has 17 patents and 50 publications and presentations.

Diane Collins

Diane Collins is the Manager of Government and Regulatory Affairs for the Gypsum Association. She previously worked on fire safety legislation for Congressman Curt Weldon. Prior to relocating to the Washington, DC area, she worked in the Anti-Counterfeiting Operations office of Underwriters Laboratories in Melville, NY. She spent fourteen years as a Port Jefferson volunteer firefighter and was active in fire prevention and life safety initiatives throughout Suffolk County, NY. She’s a past-President and current Director of the Suffolk County Fire Safety Educator’s Association and is a member of the Suffolk County Volunteer Firefighter Burn Center Fund. She has an A.A.S. degree in Criminal Justice from Suffolk County Community College, two B.S. degrees in Fire Science from the University of New Haven, and an M.A. degree in Political Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Judy Comoletti

Judy Comoletti is the assistant vice president of public education at the nonprofit NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) based in Quincy, MA. Her role at NFPA includes overseeing the Center for High-Risk Outreach as well as general public education efforts. Ms. Comoletti spearheaded the development of Risk Watch®, unintentional injury prevention and disaster preparedness programs targeting school-age children. Through her efforts, in 2006 NFPA launched the Risk Watch Safe Community program with the goal of reaching more children with Risk Watch life-saving messages. She is a media spokesperson on educational issues and represents the association at educational symposia, conferences and other professional gatherings. Ms. Comoletti is the technical liaison to NFPA’s Education Membership Section, serving more than 1,800 members throughout the world. She is an internationally recognized expert in fire and life safety education responsible for training educators, fire service personnel and other advocates to assist them in implementing NFPA educational programs.

Bruce Fraser

Bruce Fraser is currently president of Fraser Fire Protection Services since retiring after a 45 year career with SimplexGrinnell where he was their director of industry relations. He has recently served on the boards of several industry organizations including the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) and the Automatic Fire Alarm Association (AFAA) and is a past president of the New England Chapter of SFPE. Bruce is also active on several NFPA Technical Committees including NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code, Emergency Communications Systems Chapter as well as being on the NFPA 72 Technical Correlating Committee. Additionally he is a member of ASME A17.1 Elevator and Escalator Safety Code, Emergency Operations Committee. He continues to be a strong advocate for the fire industry, and in particular, for education and training.

Chris Rovenstine

Chris Rovenstine is vice president of marketing for Kidde Residential and Commercial, a division of the world's largest manufacturer of fire safety products. Chris has an extensive sales and marketing background and has worked in the fire safety industry for 15 years. He originally joined Kidde as Director of Marketing in 1996 after the acquisition of Nighthawk Systems Group, a carbon monoxide alarm manufacturer where Chris served as vice president of sales and marketing. He became vice president in 2002, and has incorporated his passion to educate the public about the dangers of fire and carbon monoxide poisoning into all of Kidde's marketing, public relations, advertising and branding strategies.

David Stevens