Stephanie Reynaud: Guiding the Volunteers Behind IICRC Certifications

Behind every IICRC certification program is a group of industry volunteers and someone coordinating their work. Stephanie Reynaud, the IICRC’s certification development supervisor, spends her days advancing new and revised programs through development with the subject-matter experts who donate their time to keep the curriculum grounded in real-world practice.

In this Q&A, learn about her role, the volunteers who make the work possible, and why what happens in a committee meeting ends up mattering in a customer’s home.

Tell us about your role

I am a certification development supervisor, and I work with many of the volunteers who are subject matter experts in the industry on various subjects for volunteer committees. They spend a lot of their time and hard work helping us improve our certification programs. We work very hard to create new programs and revise existing ones to ensure they are up to date and accurate, which is very important for our students—to make sure they’re learning relevant material for the real-world jobs they have.

No two days look quite the same, though a few things stay constant. The very first thing I do is check my email and make sure there aren’t any questions from committee members or staff here about a certification program, the development of a certification, or an upcoming meeting a committee is going to be attending. From there, I connect with Kylie, our certification development assistant, and we divide up the day’s work.

Right now, we have, I think, about six or seven certifications in revision and one brand-new certification in the works. Every committee is at a different stage. Some are just starting to draft a program description and instructor requirements, some are deep in exam content, and a few are waiting on final votes. So, it might just be me checking to see if votes have come in for approval for a certification program to be approved, and released to the world. It may be that we’re in the middle of proofreading an exam, and I need to go through and make sure edits are done properly and that we don’t have any typos.

How does your position make an impact?

It makes an impact for the students that are taking the classes, and then the employers that are employing those students, that are then going into the workforce, to have relevant content that matters and that is a baseline knowledge for them on the job. Make sure they’re safe on the job. Make sure that they’re knowledgeable about the different facets of the job and that they’re doing it correctly. If there’s an issue, they can identify that—because they’ve taken the class, they’ve passed the exam, they know what to do and not to do in the field, which is very important to employers, business owners, and employees themselves, and of course the consumers too.

It’s personal for me as much as it is professional. If somebody’s coming into your house and performing mold remediation, you want to make sure they know the ins and outs and that they are qualified. Our training programs help ensure that baseline knowledge is in place so they can do their jobs properly.

Who makes the work possible

Preparing meeting agendas is a priority for me, and it comes down to respect. Our volunteers spend their hard-earned time off helping us improve our certification program, so it’s very important for us to make sure the meetings we do have are relevant and productive.

I am there to assist the volunteers who spend their time helping better the IICRC certification. We couldn’t do anything without our subject matter experts that volunteer to help us. That is the basis of IICRC—our volunteers, which is very important.

What does your typical Saturday night look like?

I love puzzles, so I love to sit down with a good puzzle, maybe put on Lord of the Rings in the background and just work the puzzle. Or I might just read a book. I love reading.

I also have some kittens right now, so I love playing with them, socializing with them, and just taking care of them. It’s fun!

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