Allen Green is a fire and life safety educator with the Chattanooga Fire Department. Photo by Angela Foster.
The “about” section of Allen Green’s LinkedIn makes his life’s mission clear.
“I am dedicated to making sure the once hopeless will no longer be captivated by hurt and pain or failure, but will raise above their circumstances,” it reads. “Pain and suffering will be the driving force for hope.”
This is how Green transformed his own life—going from living in foster and group homes to becoming a firefighter, earning a college degree and writing a children’s book.
When Green graduated from Hixson High School in 2004, however, his dream job was to be in podiatry.
“I never really wanted to be a firefighter,” Green said. “I never thought about it. It wasn’t in my line of career choices.”
He came to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for a degree in chemistry, but in 2012, he had to make the difficult decision of putting his education on hold so he could provide for his twin sons.
“My sons were getting older,” Green said. “That was a decision that had to be made. I needed a career job. Once I got to looking more into the fire department and what all it entailed and the service it provided, the schedule, the pay, it was good enough for me.”
His experience with the Chattanooga Fire Department—which has now spanned over a decade—became more than “good enough.” It allowed him to pursue his true passion—education.
“I have always been in education,” Green said. “It was a natural thing for me, leading and teaching people. I’ve always been that way.”
While working in fire suppression as an operations firefighter, Green would often volunteer to speak to schoolchildren and day care centers about fire safety. At the same time, he decided to continue his own education.
In 2020, Green went back to UTC to complete his remaining classes—and graduated with a degree in chemistry in 2022.
“It was different with COVID and the measures they had in place,” he said. “But I was more grounded in my life, my career. I was more stable so I was able to focus more on the classes and be more determined and intentional about finishing up.”
The year he graduated, he changed positions in the fire department to fire and life safety educator. In this role, he has been able to incorporate education into his full-time job.
“Teaching and educating, for me, is like a ministry,” he said when talking about his job. “It’s not just about giving out information. For me, it’s about implementing change and growth.
“I’m a big believer in ‘education is the foundation to prevention.’”
The word “prevention” holds a lot of weight for Green, and it’s why he decided to go even further with his mission of community outreach and engagement.
He recognized that literacy rates were low in certain Chattanooga schools, particularly in high-poverty areas. Drawing from his own experiences growing up in Chattanooga, he wanted to create a program that combined literacy and fire safety education.
“I said, ‘How can I instill a high level of achievement in the area that may have a high level of poverty and lack of resources?’” Green explained. “I grew up in that area. I know there’s a lack of resources in the South Chattanooga and Alton Park area. I know there’s high poverty in that area.
“I asked, ‘How can I be a catalyst or play my part in giving back to help with that high achievement component?’”
He created the Read to Succeed literacy program, an initiative where firefighters visit schools to read to students and teach them about fire and life safety. The program was designed to build literacy skills while also building trust between children and first responders.
Green was intentional in selecting Calvin Dunson Elementary as the program’s first school.
“I specifically, strategically and intentionally chose Calvin Dunson Elementary to be the first school to have the program because that’s the elementary school I graduated from or went to when I was little,” he said.
Through Read to Succeed, Green and his fellow firefighters visit schools once a month, reading to every class and weaving together fire safety lessons and storytelling.
After a couple of years of running Read to Succeed, he noticed the books didn’t fully align with the messaging he wanted to convey.
“The books I was buying from Amazon, they were great and all, but at the end of the presentation I still had to weave in the messaging that I wanted the kids to get,” he said. “So I said, ‘Why not write my own kids book with direct messaging?’”
That decision led to the creation of “Mom! Dad! What Should I Do?”—a children’s book published by Wright Womb Ink in January to teach fire safety and empower children through representation and storytelling.
For Green, this work is all about providing hope and creating opportunities for students to see themselves in roles they may have never considered before—and, of course, fire safety.
“When you develop these programs and communities, it adds equity to a community that’s suffering,” he said, “or to an area that’s suffering in knowledge, education, resources.
“We know fires happen most in areas of low income, lack of resources or high poverty. We use systems and data and research to get ahead of those calls so we can help mitigate the fires in those areas.”
Although it has been a while since Green was in Dr. Gretchen Potts’ class in 2012, Potts said she distinctly remembers the smile he brought to class each day.
“For some students, I can barely remember their face,” said Potts, who has been at UTC since 2002 and is the department head for Biology, Geology and Environmental Science. “For him, I even remember his middle name and what a great attitude he brought to class.”
Potts was in attendance for Green’s book launch held at the Chattanooga Library Eastgate location.
“I was so honored to be there and see everybody,” she said. “There were so many people—people from the community, people who came up to him saying, ‘Do you remember me?’”
She bought several copies of Green’s book, donating one to UTC’s Special Collections and another that is available for checkout at the UTC Library.
“I bought five copies and gave them all away,” she said. “I need to buy more.”
************************
Purchase a copy of “Mom! Dad! What Should I Do?” here. Proceeds go to Green’s Read to Succeed literacy program.
************************
Green’s work extends beyond Chattanooga. He has begun traveling to other cities and states—recently Cleveland, Ohio—to continue educating. He said other fire departments have requested copies of his book and he has been invited to several career fairs.
He even presented to a class at UTC.
“It’s not about financial gain,” he said. “It’s about knowing that you are impacting and uplifting the community in a way that you are passionate about.”
The future for Green involves expanding Read to Succeed, reaching more students and continuing to use education to make a difference.
“Education is the foundation to prevention,” he said. “If we want our community to be safer, then we have to take prevention seriously. That starts with education.”
Learn more
