Webinar Overview & Objectives
Physical activity and exercise are critically important behaviors for the development and maintenance of numerous health and fitness outcomes that matter to fire fighters. The physical demands of the job also require fire fighters to possess physical capacities that allow them to perform on the fire ground safely and effectively. The importance of these behaviors is highlighted by the theme of the 2026 Safety Stand Down, Firefighter Fitness: Fit to Serve, Fit for Life, which recognizes physical fitness (a direct product of physical activity and exercise) as a critical health and safety factor. The main challenge at hand for the fire service is how best to support fire fighters in adopting and sustaining regular engagement in these behaviors. When it comes to addressing this challenge in the on-duty context, a fire department’s on-duty exercise policy (or lack thereof), demands the attention of wellness stakeholders to ensure it is acting as a facilitator and not a barrier to engagement.
In this webinar, dedicated to supporting the 2026 Safety Stand Down, the F2T team will sit down with Luke Pedersen (IAFF Master Instructor, Captain Training Officer at Waterloo Fire and Emergency Services, and Executive Board Member IAFF Local 791) and Kyle Ebersole (Ph.D., LAT, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and SME for the City of Milwaukee Fire Department) to discuss considerations for building effective and supportive on-duty exercise policies. The aim of this webinar is to outline general and critical factors that all stakeholders should consider when crafting or updating their policies. In doing so, our goal is to provide attendees with an improved ability to develop on-duty exercise policies in their departments suitable to their specific needs.
This LIVE webinar will be hosted on Thursday, June 18th, 2026, at 1:00 PM, ET, and run approximately 1 hour.
It is a contribution in support of the 2026 Fire Fighter Safety Stand Down, ‘Fire Fighter Fitness: Fit to Serve, Fit for Life’.
For more information on how to participate click HERE.
Featured Panelists
Luke Pedersen
Luke serves as a Captain Training Officer with Waterloo Fire Rescue and is a Master Instructor for the IAFF Fit to Thrive program. He is Vice President of the Waterloo Professional Fire Fighters Association (Local 791), Co-Chair of the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee, and Health and Wellness Coordinator for Waterloo Fire Rescue. He also serves on the OPFFA Health & Safety/Ontario Fire Service Section 21 Advisory Committee and the NFPA 1580 Technical Committee.
Luke’s work focuses on advancing firefighter health, performance, and organizational systems that support long-term operational readiness and career longevity. He brings 25 years of experience in sport, exercise, and injury prevention. Since 2001, he has worked as a performance and injury-prevention specialist across rehabilitation, health, and high-performance environments. Since 2008, he has collaborated with researchers from the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto to develop firefighter wellness and fitness programming aligned with occupational demands.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources and Labour Relations and is completing an MBA focused on Organizational Behaviour, Change Management, Business Analytics, and Performance Management. His academic work is centred on the responsible application of organizational and analytical principles to strengthen firefighter health, performance, and longevity through well-designed wellness and fitness systems.
Kyle Ebersole
Kyle Ebersole, PhD, LAT, is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences & Technology, where he teaches in the Physical Therapy and Athletic Training programs. He is a Licensed Athletic Trainer and has spent more than a decade partnering with the Milwaukee Fire Department, providing athletic training services and serving as Health and Fitness Coordinator as part of the Milwaukee Firefighter Performance Initiative. Kyle’s work focuses on how movement efficiency, muscle function, and the autonomic nervous system contribute to building work capacity and improving the health, fitness, and performance of cadets, recruits, and active-duty members. His ongoing collaboration with MFD has produced more than two dozen peer-reviewed publications and over 50 national presentations, helping drive meaningful improvements in member health and safety. Kyle has also been a research and sport science consultant with High Performance Department in the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club since 2011 where the work focuses on creating strategies to maximize player development and readiness to perform.
USD 
CAD