A longtime Alpha Fire Company member and regional emergency management coordinator is the new Centre Region fire director.
Shawn Kauffman, who had been interim fire director since January, was appointed to the role effective July 31. He succeeds Steve Bair, who retired at the end of 2022 after 16 years leading the region’s fire protection program.
A State College native and Penn State graduate, Kauffman has been a firefighter, assistant chief and chief since joining Alpha in 1988 and has been Centre Region emergency management coordinator since 1998.
“Shawn Kauffman demonstrated his passion for the fire service and the region while serving as the interim fire director and emergency management coordinator, as he did previously as chief of the Alpha Fire Company and a member of the fire company for 35 years,” Centre Region Council of Governments Executive Director Eric Norenberg wrote in an email.
An initial pool of 27 candidates was narrowed to seven for screening interviews in late May. Four were then invited to take part in an assessment center, which involved “a tactical exercise, writing assignment with presentation, a pop-up challenge, a leaderless exercise, an oral board with two municipal managers and other components,” Norenberg said.
He added that “it was important to keep the Alpha Fire Company engaged in the process during the recruitment and selection.” Alpha members were surveyed and their feedback was used to develop questions and scenarios for the candidates. The night before the assessment center in June, more than 30 members attended a meet and greet with the finalists, where they had one-on-one conversations with the candidates and were able to ask impromptu questions.
“Director Kauffman successfully passed the Assessment Center and a background check,” Norenberg wrote. “He also had the support of the survey responses from the meet and greet, as well as the representatives of the Alpha Volunteer Company who worked with us throughout the process.”
As fire director, Kauffman oversees Alpha Fire Company, where he holds the dual title of chief, as well as the fire marshal’s office and the Centre Region HazMat team. He is responsible for managing career personnel and volunteers for the fire department that serves 93,000 people in a 104-square-mile area that includes State College, Ferguson and College townships and southern Benner Township. The department, which provides automatic mutual aid in Harris and Halfmoon townships as well, responds to about 1,200 incidents per year.
