Garriss receives NASFM President’s Award

2017 President’s Award recognizes outstanding efforts and leadership during the past year

He has served the International Code Council for the past year with a commitment to enhancing the safety of the public through innovative legislative and educational efforts. International Code Council Board of Directors President and Georgia State Fire Marshal M. Dwayne Garriss was recently recognized by the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) with its 2017 President’s Award for his dedication to furthering the fire prevention profession.

The annual NASFM President’s Award is given to a fire safety professional and recognizes outstanding efforts and leadership during the past year. The award was presented during the 2017 NASFM Annual Conference in Charleston, S.C. NASFM is the professional society for state fire marshals and their top deputies.

Garriss was elected Secretary/Treasurer of the ICC board in 2014 and is currently the ICC board president. During his tenure on the board, he has focused on collaboration and uniting the numerous code disciplines and various stakeholder groups through his presidential theme “Many Voices for One Purpose.” He has continued ongoing initiatives such as fostering and mentoring the next generation of code officials.

“At the International Code Council, we are truly ‘Many Voices for One Purpose,’ and that purpose is to advance our mission of providing a safe built environment while serving our member jurisdictions,” Garriss said. “The ‘many voices’ are all the members of the ICC, and the ‘one purpose’ is providing the highest quality codes and standards for protecting the health, safety and welfare of people in the built environment.”

With a singular talent for bringing together building and fire safety professionals at all levels of experience, Garriss served as a past chair of the ICC Fire Service Membership Council Governance Committee and is considered one of the original architects of ICC’s current Membership Council structure. He has also been an active member of the ICC Fire Code Council, including serving as chair. He served on two exam development committees and on the Governance Review Committee for ICC. Other areas of involvement with ICC include service on the Joint Fire Service Review Committee as an ICC appointee, the Codes Correlating Committee and the Steering Committee.

With an educational background in architecture from the University of Tennessee, Garriss started his career as a mechanical engineer project manager. In 1988, he relocated to the Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner as a fire safety engineer. Since 1993 until he was appointed as the State Fire Marshal in 2011, he served in the position of assistant state fire marshal overseeing the Engineering and Inspection Division and the licensing of fire suppression contractors, inspectors and special hazard system technicians. Dwayne has served as the Safety Fire Commissioner’s designee on the State Codes Advisory Committee for the Department of Community Affairs since the mid-1990s.

In addition, Garriss has been a construction codes instructor for the University of Georgia through Clayton State College and University and Gainesville State College. Currently, he is an adjunct instructor for the Georgia Fire Academy and has also served as an instructor for portions of the fire science program at Perimeter College.

“Few have dedicated themselves to furthering the fire safety and prevention profession to the extent as Dwayne,” said International Code Council Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims. “His lasting commitment, industry contributions and ongoing efforts to promote fire safety through engineering, education and enforcement make him the ideal recipient of this prestigious award. We congratulate Dwayne on this significant achievement.”

Garriss’ talent for bringing together code officials and design professionals from all walks of the industry will be evident during the 2017 ICC Annual Conference & Expo in Columbus, Ohio, next month.