The Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE), which is the international organization that oversees Fire Department Accreditation and Professional Credentialing, awarded Brentwood Chief Brian Goss as its 2018 Ambassador of the Year. The organization gives only three awards at the Excellence Conference held each year in Orlando. Goss received the award during opening ceremonies at the conference on Tuesday, March 13.
The Ambassador of the Year is awarded to an individual for going above and beyond in support of accreditation, credentialing, and CPSE as a whole. Preet Bassi, CPSE Chief Executive Officer, said Chief Goss is a strong proponent of accreditation and credentialing. Bassi said when presenting the award, “As the team and I sat down to think of who would be this year’s recipient, it took us all of about ten seconds to come up with this name. He is a fire chief of an accredited department, which boasts multiple credentialed officers, he has been credentialed as a Chief Fire Officer since 2010 and serves as the coordinator for his state’s consortium. In his role as coordinator we have seen more agencies in the state become engaged in accreditation and many more officers become credentialed.”
Goss was humbled and honored to receive this award. “When I brought accreditation to Brentwood about ten years ago, I quickly identified those I wanted to get involved in the process and they have run with it and embraced it,” Goss said. When elected to the Board of Directors for the TN Fire Chief’s association “I found individuals starving for a professional development tool to improve their own professionalism and training,” Goss added.
The Brentwood Fire and Rescue Department currently has 66 employees. Fifteen of Brentwood’s 19 officers, lieutenant and above are professionally credentialed, with two more applications recently submitted.
