Albertson uses his personal education to lead organizational change
Bakersfield Fire Department Chief Kevin Albertson knew from a young age he wanted to be a firefighter. While earning his bachelor’s degree in business management at Concordia University in Seward, NE, his pager would occasionally go off during class, and he’d be off to serve as a volunteer with the local fire department. After graduating in 1997, he returned home to California and began testing at fire departments throughout the West. Joining the Bakersfield Fire Department in 2000, he worked his way up to become deputy chief of operations and was named chief in May of this year.
As part of Albertson’s commitment to bettering himself and continuing his education, he became an EMT and urban search and rescue instructor and served as a medical unit leader for the South Central Sierra Incident Management Team. In his role as southern section president of the Cal Chiefs Training Officers Association, he started a vendor show at the organization’s annual training symposium in Fresno. It was there he met Hannah, an FPU admissions counselor.
For three years in a row, Albertson saw Hannah at the symposium, and each year she encouraged him to apply for FPU’s M.A. in Strategic and Organizational Leadership program. The third time was a charm, and Albertson finally gave in and applied for admission. “It was probably the Lord doing his work,” Albertson says of what he now sees as divine timing. During the three-year period it took him to apply, he was promoted to battalion chief, putting him in a position to implement changes at Bakersfield Fire he wouldn’t have been authorized to make earlier.
Implementing change, encouraging purpose
Albertson says his experience in the online program brought about significant change at Bakersfield Fire. He credits his professors with teaching him how to implement organizational change, develop critical thinking skills and research data. While writing his thesis on fire department succession, he studied the stressors and factors that were prompting his fire fighters to remain in that position instead of seeking promotion.
“Fire fighters aren’t motivated by money, we’re motivated by purpose,”
Albertson says, so he led the department’s efforts to implement professional development practices to help his team discover their purpose. Through shortening the training process required to promote from fire fighter to engineer from six months to two months, changing the promotion requirements and bringing in clinicians to provide counseling for post-traumatic stress injury, Albertson saw a boost in morale and an improvement in culture.
Three years after he graduated, Albertson says all the engineer positions that were empty then have been filled by firefighters who promoted. “I believe the department is in a better spot because of some of the changes we implemented,” he adds.
Commitment and faith
Albertson and his wife, Tabitha, have two sons: 3-year-old Rawley and 1-year-old Roosevelt. He recalls the struggles of working full-time while completing his master’s during their second pregnancy and the significance of his wife’s support. “You and your family both have to commit to the process,” he says, but for him, it was worth the sacrifices. “It develops you as a leader, manager and critical thinker. It’s not easy, but it shouldn’t be if you want to get something out of it.”
Having professors with “real-world” experience helped him apply what he learned in the workplace, Albertson says, and as a life-long believer, learning it from a Christian perspective was invaluable. “It’s very satisfying to go to a school that shares your values; you feel a part of something bigger,” he says. “It makes you believe the Lord is still at work and doing good things in the world.”