Frank Ricci

Frank Ricci was the lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano. He is a retired battalion chief and union president for the city of New Haven, CT, Fire Department. Frank also served as the department’s drillmaster, being the highest-ranking chief assigned to Special Operations Command. Frank is on the advisory board for FDIC and Fire Engineering. He has been qualified as an expert witness for court and administrative cases involving hazardous material incidents, structure fires, and promotional exams. He currently is a fellow at Yankee Institute that is one of the nation's oldest think tanks working on state and national labor issues.

 

He has numerous bylines in the Daily Caller and has been published by Human Events, Washington Examiner, The Hill, and The Federalist. Frank has appeared on Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Hardball, NBC Nightly News, Fox & Friends, Laura Ingraham, Newsmax Sunday, and other notable news shows. He has testified before Congress, been a lead consultant for Yale on several studies, and has lectured at the Reagan Library. Frank has worked for the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad on a heavy rescue and ambulance unit covering Bethesda, Chevy Chase, MD, and northwest DC. He was a “student live-in” at Station 31 for the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department in Maryland.

Frank has been awarded the Medal of Valor, the Medal of Merit, the department’s Meritorious Citation, Frances Sweeney Award, and several unit citations by the New Haven Fire Department.


He graduated from the Charter Oak Leadership program and developed the Fire Engineering Film Smoke Showing. Frank authored several DVDs, including Firefighter Survival Techniques and Fire Engineering’s Tactical Perspectives series, including the titles Command, Ventilation, Search, Fire Attack, and Mayday. Frank was a contributing author to Fire Engineering Handbook for Firefighter 1 and 2, and he cohosts a monthly podcast called Politics and Tactics. You can reach out to him on Twitter @frankricciDC