"I guess if you have spent your entire career convincing people that climbing to the top of a mountain just to fight a forest fire is a good idea;  you would probably know a little bit about leadership"
- unknown citizen to Curtis Heaton, US Forest Service Fire Staff Officer

Have you ever thought about having the opportunity to interview someone you respected and admired as a leader? To ask them how they handled a critical moment where they had to make a difficult decision; or what they think it takes to be an effective leader; or who helped them along their path to becoming a leader.

We tend to overlook the leaders in our midst. There is no outside source of highly qualified fire leaders, many people in the wildland fire service are widely recognized as extremely effective leaders. But how well are we passing on their accumulated knowledge and how well are we identifying role models for the next generation of leaders?

Most of us, given enough time, can think of one or more leaders we would like to talk to. Our individual choices would be a diverse collection of the obscure and the well known, of the young and old, and everything in between. The intent behind this collection of interviews is to begin recognizing those that have spent their career providing exemplary leadership to firefighters and capturing their lessons for future leaders. If you are interested in interviewing someone for this feature, click here to review the interview guidelines. After reviewing the guidelines, contact a member of the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee for further information.