Ron Kanterman is a 46-year fire service veteran and worked at the Chief level for the past 30 years in 3 commands in New Jersey and Connecticut. He is currently the Manager of Fire and Life Safety at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City and is the principal of Gold Horn Associates, a fire service training and corporate consulting consortium for life safety, fire protection and emergency management. He is also the Training and Education Coordinator for the NFFF Fire Programs Group.
Kanterman holds a BA in Fire Service Administration and a MS in Fire Protection Management, both from John Jay College in New York City. He holds a second Master’s Degree in Environmental Sciences from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is currently an adjunct professor of Fire Protection and Emergency Management at the University of New Haven and has taught for the past 30 years at various two and four-year colleges at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has also taught as an Adjunct Instructor at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Kanterman has been published over 180 times and contributes to Fireengineering.com regularly through his blog page known as “Chief Kanterman’s Journal” as well as Fire Engineering magazine. In 2019 Fire Engineering published two of his books; “Fire Officer’s Guide to Occupational Safety and Health” and “The Handbook for Hazardous Materials Response” which he co-authored. He was also a contributing chapter author for the inaugural Fire Engineering Firefighter I & II manual published in 2008. He authored the Health and Safety chapter in the 7th Edition of the Fire Chief’s handbook published in 2015, and has contributed to 6 other fire service texts. He published his first book entitled “Managing Fireworks Displays” in 2008. He’s sits on the Educational Advisory Committee for, and has taught at, the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference (FDIC) held in Indianapolis, Indiana for the past 22 years.
Chief Kanterman is an avid volunteer with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and worked as the Chief of Operations for 13 years at the National Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He assumed the role of Memorial Weekend Incident Commander in 2018. He is also the Lead Instructor for the Local Assistance State Teams (LAST) program which assists fire departments and families who have experienced a line-of-duty-death and is also affiliated with the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.
