Commissioner of Insurance and State Fire Marshal Mike Chaney has named Chief Kelly Elliott as the Executive Director of the Mississippi State Fire Academy (MSFA).
Elliott currently serves as Fire Chief for the City of Tupelo Fire Department and is a Mississippi Air National Guard member with the 172nd Airlift Wing, where he is the current Wing Command Chief.
Elliott was an instructor at the Mississippi State Fire Academy from 1998-2003 and has an extensive fire service and military background.
He enlisted in the United States Air Force as a firefighter in 1991 where he has since accumulated over 31 years of fire service experience in local, state, federal, and international work environments.
Elliott lives in Tupelo with his wife and three sons but will relocate to the Jackson area.
Barry Burnside, a current MSFA Advanced Instructor, is also being appointed MSFA Deputy Director. He will serve as second-in-command to Director Elliott. Burnside is the former City of Clinton Fire Chief and has been an instructor at the MSFA for seven years. He lives in Clinton with his wife and three children.
Elliott and Burnside will take office effective July 1, 2023. Executive Director Terry Wages will retire from the MSFA on June 30, 2023.
Wages has served as Executive Director since 2019. Daniel Cross will continue his role as co-deputy director working laterally with Elliott and Burnside to promote the ideals of the fire academy as he has done for several years.
