Shefali J Lakhina

Join us for a virtual Fire & Forestry Career Day next Friday, 11 April! Learn about exciting career pathways from leading experts in #wildfire #forestry #conservation #careers Drop off your resume, schedule informational chats, and chart your career next steps! lu.ma/q2429g7b Don't miss it, register here today: fireupcareerday.vfairs.com

👩‍💻 Calling all innovators, researchers, public agencies, community networks, and funders working towards #wildfire #resilience outcomes around the world! 👩‍🚒 Please take the State of FireTech 2025 Survey before 30 August, 2025: surveymonkey.com/r/stateoffiret… 🎯 The annual State of FireTech Surveys help track how FireTech is evolving and achieving equitable outcomes with public agencies and communities on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis. Your perspectives will contribute to findings and recommendations in the forthcoming State of FireTech 2025 Annual Update. 💡 For background, read results from past State of FireTech Surveys here: wonder-labs.org/state-of-firet… #firetech #wildfires #resilience #innovation #equity @WonderLabs1 @MooreFound @convectivecap @MegafireAction

As the Trump-Vance administration assumes office this week, I want to underscore the urgent need for retaining, expanding, and modernizing our nation's fire and forestry workforce. Our nation’s workforce systems, and the policies that govern them, have not kept pace with the changing needs or evolving conditions of the fire and forestry industry. Linear workforce pipelines no longer serve a workforce seeking greater mobility, flexibility, and family sustaining careers. Workforce development systems need to be replaced with career development systems that embrace whole person development, life long learning, and upskilling across career stages to enable greater flexibility in work-life arrangements and well-being outcomes. The Trump-Vance administration must create systems that democratize access to whole-person development, lifelong learning, and career mobility with more opportunities for upskilling and pathways for non-degree credentials. This revitalization of the fire and forestry workforce system must be implemented through private and non-profit partnerships already leading the way in ensuring that fire and forestry careers are dignified, sustainable, and capable of securing a future for all American workers. This is why FireUp exists (fire-up.net). We recognize that this paradigm shift requires a bold policy agenda that modernizes traditional degree-focused and workforce training pipeline models to instead meet people where they are in their life and career. Every American deserves boundless pathways to pursue a rewarding career and meaningful life. We need to redesign the system to democratize access to earning credentials no matter where workers live. The system must recognize people’s transferrable skills, build their competencies through new training models, and give people choices for career transitions and mobility at every stage. FireUp is already working to deliver a worker-centered digital infrastructure of care that forms the basis of these recommendations. We stand ready to partner in this transformation, helping to build a future where fire and forestry professionals thrive and their work contributes to a safe and healthy future for all Americans. Read more about fire and forestry workforce priorities here: fire-up.net/blog/foundersd… #wildfires #fire #forestry #workforce

Wishing you all a restful year end✨We look forward to coming back to life in the new year with more offerings to build a healthy, effective, & sustainable future for all fire and forestry professionals🌲

Great to be featured in this report with a brief on how our FireTech framework has contributed to mapping emerging technologies for wildfire resilience and adaptation! @ShefJL @MooreFound More on the State of FireTech Report here: wonder-labs.org/state-of-firet…

@gtwhitesides Congratulations, Congressman Whitesides!!!

Thank you #CA27. It’s the honor of a lifetime to serve you in Congress.

It was great chatting with Jennifer Gabrys on the Smart Forest Radio about #firetech I mentioned @BurnBotRxTech and FireUp (fire-up.net) many times, obviously :) Spoiler alert: "... technology is not intrinsically good, bad or anything. It is always about who is developing it, who is using it, and to what end. And emphasizing the notion of co-development, of co-production, is just so important ... thinking about technology as an enabler and an amplifier, not as solutionism. The question is, what are you going to do with it, for what outcome?" #wildfire #technology @WonderLabs1 @PlanetaryPraxis #StateofFireTechReport @MooreFound

Delighted to accept Tim Ingalsbee's insightful essay for publication in the Fire Journal's Special Issue on Reimagining the Future of Living and Working with Fire! – with @kcopesgerbitz After the Greenfire Revolution: Reimagining Collective Identities of the Future Wildland Fire Workforce in a Paradigm Shift for Ecological Fire Management "This concept paper explores possible collective identities for a future wildland fire workforce. Taking inspiration from the work of futurists who foresee an end to the dominant fire exclusion/suppression paradigm, and assuming that an emerging fire restoration/resilience paradigm shift replaces it, this paper engages in speculative explorations of the process and product of this paradigm shift with respect to the future collective identities of a workforce conducting ecological fire management. Social constructionist assumptions from symbolic interactionist sociological theory, Gramscian political theory’s concept of hegemony, and new social movement theory’s concept of collective identity all provide the intellectual foundations for the discussion. This concept paper argues that in order to actualize a paradigm shift, more than advances in scientific research or reforms of government policies will be required—the wildland fire community will need to become (or join) a social movement engaged in collective actions. An imaginary social movement, the “Greenfire revolution,” is invented to help illustrate how the selected theories and concepts might apply in the social construction of ecological fire management and the collective identities of its future workforce." @fuseefire––gratitude for all you do! Read Tim's article open access here: mdpi.com/2571-6255/7/7/… Access all articles in the Special Issue here: mdpi.com/journal/fire/s… If you work in fire and forestry, I invite you to engage with the special issue articles and help us reimagine the future of work in fire and forestry! @WonderLabs1 FireUp fire-up.net #wildfire #resilience #workforce #care #collective

Timely and important coverage on co-learning disaster resilience with people from refugee backgrounds in Australia: canberratimes.com.au/story/8665589/… Interesting to see my research findings and recommendations are still as relevant. Read on to learn about implementing disaster resilience policies with CARE—collaboration, accountability, responsiveness, and empowerment—of diverse perspectives and lived experiences. #RefugeeWeek24

☀️ TGIF! It’s FireUp Friday! ☀️ Start your weekend by exploring current opportunities in fire and forestry! Visit jobs.fire-up.net for more details. #FireUpFriday #JobOpportunities #Fire #Forestry #HiringNow @DeerCrResources

Delighted to share a new #firetech podcast episode––Innovating on the Frontlines with Neil Chapman! @neilchappy Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inn… I've been fascinated by the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission's recommendation to expand the prescribed fire workforce by cross-training potentially a million structural firefighters in applying beneficial fire. In this episode, Neil tells us the background story of how this came to be and what federal, state, and local agencies are doing to bolster the prescribed fire workforce of America @IAFC_WFP #prescribedfire #TREX This interagency effort is a great example of systems innovation at work! It's not just about what tools and technologies we adopt, it's about how we can modernize governance systems and repurpose workforce capabilities. Among many other important topics, we also talk about the urgent need to address structural mitigation efforts that protect the built environment. Neil outlines why it will be important to closely work with communities to implement the ‘mitigations that matter’ at the pace and scale required, now and into the future.  I hope you enjoy this episode, and please share widely. Finally, be sure to take the State of FireTech 2024 Survey (do it now!) so your perspective can be represented in the upcoming Annual Update: surveymonkey.com/r/firetech2024 Thank you! @WonderLabs1

Excited to share the first few episodes of my FireTech podcast mini-series (yes, we do need one more wildfire podcast)! I’ll keep it limited to a few episodes because I need answers and would love to share these #firetech conversations as I learn. In this mini podcast series, I aim to spotlight the experiences of public agency innovators and intrapreneurs on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis in America.  Here are some of the questions I center in these conversations: How does innovation unfold in agencies working on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis? What does the innovation cycle look like in local, state, federal, and Tribal agencies? What industry standards are needed for co-developing innovations with agencies in ways that technology products and services are useful, usable, and actually used on the frontlines? Feel free to add your questions in the comments and I'll get to them in the next episodes! In the first episode, I set the stage by summarizing key trends and findings from the State of FireTech 2023 Survey and Annual Update. Download the 2023 report and summary here: wonder-labs.org/state-of-firet… and if you're working in FireTech, be sure to take the 2024 FireTech Survey before August 30, 2024: surveymonkey.com/r/firetech2024 In the second episode, you'll learn from Josh Wilkins, retired Fire Captain with the San Bernardino County Fire Department in Southern California. Josh is a second generation firefighter who has led responses to hundreds of wildfires over the past 27 years. You'll learn about Josh's journey with FireTech over the years, the kinds of technology he found most useful on the frontlines, and his perspective on how local agencies can catalyze the co-development and early adoption of useful and usable FireTech. Stay tuned for my next conversation––with Neil Chapman @neilchappy releasing next week! Link to the FireTech podcast here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inn… Please listen, share, and reach out with ideas, especially if you have an innovation on the frontlines you'd like to talk about! #wildfire #technology #government #industry #innovation @WonderLabs1

Much gratitude to Ian Appow for sharing insights from his important work with the Northwest Youth Corps @NWYouthCorps in Oregon! Also read about their Community Wildfire Protection Corps work here: opb.org/article/2024/0… FireUp is delighted to begin work with these amazing partners to bring diverse career development, mentoring, and well-being opportunities to everyone in the fire and forestry industry! Join the FireUp Community to connect with industry mentors and coaches here: fire-up.us.hivebrite.com Join the FireUp Talent Network to be matched with hundreds of employers here: surveymonkey.com/r/fireupyourca… Browse FireUp curated well-being services and resources here: fire-up.net/well-being #WildfireAwarenessMonth

8/ Social scientists say all these frictions add up, fueling a deep sense of alienation at the workplace, once a wellspring of connection for many. Read more & would love if you shared your experience here: wsj.com/lifestyle/work…

Looking for incident mapping techs and someone to run our wildfire mapping operations for the summer at @DeerCrResources: This is a 3-month position, based out of Chico, California. Thanks to @ShefJL for setting up this new fire and forests jobs site! jobs.fire-up.net/companies/deer…

@wildland_zko Hi Zeke! Please submit your company info here and we’ll set it up: surveymonkey.com/r/fireupyourre…

@ShefJL How do I post a job announcement?

Delighted to share the FireUp Platform Jobs page is now live! fire-up.net Check out over 850 forestry and fire jobs with 99 employers across the country. Many more coming soon! Refine your search by industry or company, set a job alert, and register for the talent network so you get matched to the best opportunities. Mentorship and well-being pages coming next! Please feel free to leave feedback - let’s build this together. FireUp your network! Connect with people who matter to your career and well-being. #wildfires #forestry #jobs

Each week hundreds of new jobs are added to FireUp: America's first exclusively fire & forestry focused career & well-being platform! Check out 1600+ openings spanning wildland firefighting, hazardous fuels reduction, & forestry project management here: jobs.fire-up.net/jobs

Thanks for featuring my policy entrepreneurship journey, FAS! It was great to work with you all last year @scientistsorg For those of you looking to (re)read the 23 wildfire policy recommendations FAS facilitated to inform the Commission’s report last year, check out two right here: Increasing National Resilience through an Open Disaster Data Initiative fas.org/publication/in… Investing in worker-led industries for whole of community resilience: #work3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">fas.org/publication/wi… As I say in the FAS article, even when your recommendations are not explicitly credited or acknowledged in a Commission report, you know from reading the text that you’ve influenced the policy process and outcomes in a meaningful way, which makes policy engagement so worthwhile. If you’re interested in pursuing policy entrepreneurship this year, be sure to check out FAS’ call for Day One 2025 Project ideas!