Joseph R. Nedder Jr. joined the fire service in 1977 and has attended FDIC for 24 consecutive years, where he has taught every year since 2010. He has spoken throughout New England for more than 20 years. Since 2008, his focus has been providing volunteer and other smaller organizations the training specific to their needs. He has produced complete Firefighter I/II classes in compliance with NFPA 1001 for members of volunteer departments, most recently at Oak Bluffs, MA, Fire Department on Martha’s Vineyard.
Retiring from active on-the-line service in 2013, Nedder has been a volunteer or on-call firefighter throughout his career. He continues to develop new programs, actively teach, and write. He has written numerous articles for Fire Engineering magazine and has written a book on rapid intervention crews. A self-described disciple of risk management, Nedder is on a mission to spread the word that continuous, meaningful training is necessary to be safe and work effectively as a firefighter.