UHV safety officer completes leadership training
Stuart Sherman, the senior director of emergency management for the University of Houston-Victoria, recently graduated from a leadership training course.
Sherman graduated in Class 9 of the Fire Executive Management Training offered by Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. The course is a two-week series of classes that focus on building important knowledge and leadership skills for fire executives and safety professionals.
“This was the best training I’ve ever attended in the past 10 years,” Sherman said. “The course offered ways to encourage us with strategies to unleash our potential in leadership roles. The end goal was to help each of us become better team players and search for resources within our organizations.”
During the two-week training, Sherman and the other attendees attended sessions that focused on skills including how to deal with people, budget analysis, leadership techniques, investigations and how to present in court, plus cultural ethics.
“I am glad we have Stuart Sherman on the front lines of our efforts to protect the safety of our campus community,” UHV President Bob Glenn said. “Stuart has been meticulous in his training and preparation for a broad variety of potential problems. He keeps us safe. We are truly fortunate to have a person of his caliber and ability in that role.”
Sherman chose to attend the training after hearing about it from Chris McDonald, the fire marshal at the University of Houston, who had attended a previous class and recommended that all the other UH System campuses’ assistant fire marshals attend the training as well. Sherman’s class included 20 professionals from all across Texas and one from Oklahoma.
The sessions featured a range of topics, including “Community Risk Reduction,” “The Art of Strategic Communication,” “Ethical Leadership,” “Special Topics in Fire Investigation Unit Administration” and “Leading Across Generations.” In addition, attendees learned how to build a leadership portfolio that showcased their leadership experience and training, such as training certificates and what actions are taken to stay up-to-date with changes in the field.
“Every part of this training had some relevant bearing on the work I do every day for UHV,” Sherman said. “I particularly enjoyed the strategy course and learning about working with multiple generations. But more than anything, I appreciated how it taught me to evaluate and assess myself and the work I do to create and maintain a safe atmosphere at UHV.”
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 50 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.