Kindling is a US-based non-profit organization with the mission to connect fire safety knowledge to local and global humanitarian and development efforts in order to reduce the unequal impact of fire on people, property and livelihoods in vulnerable communities around the world.

Danielle Antonellis is a Fire Safety Engineer and the Founder & Executive Director of Kindling. Danielle is an advocate for integrating fire safety policies and practices into humanitarian planning, disaster risk reduction, urban resilience, and international development. Much of her work is focused on improving fire safety in informal settlements and in refugee/IDP camps through advocacy, knowledge sharing, and capacity building.

Danielle has a proven track record of establishing and leading cross-discipline and cross-region teams to tackle intractable problems. Before founding Kindling, Danielle was a Senior Fire Safety Consultant with Arup based in the US, UK, and Hong Kong. She managed and delivered fire engineering services for building and infrastructure projects., led Arup’s global research program on fire safety in informal settlements, and established a global multidisciplinary skills group called City Fire Resilience. Before Arup, Danielle was a Fire Suppression Systems Researcher and Technical Advisor at Johnson Controls (formerly Tyco). Danielle has a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.