Education Innovator’s Fund Trains Lighting Professionals
PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ – The National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors announced that it will keep the memory of the late industry icon Paul Hafner alive with a memorial scholarship.
Hafner, who passed away in July, was known as a thought leader who launched NAILD’s Lighting Specialist training programs.
NAILD is now accepting scholarship donations, which will fund the lighting education of the first three recipients in 2019. One recipient will receive a free “The Transition of Legacy Sources to LED” (LS-I) course, another will receive a free “Lighting Specialist II” (LS-II) course and a third will receive a free Lighting Specialist-Controls” (LS-C) course. The application deadline is March 1, 2019. Recipients will be notified by April 1. (LS-1 completion is a prerequisite for LS-II and LS-C.)
“Paul was inspiring,” said Cory Schneider, NAILD President and CEO of Lighting Unlimited “Any question you had on lighting, Paul had a story that would make you think. Most educators have never been in the field, but Paul was a field guy who became an educator. He was passionate and made it his life’s work until he died in July 2018.”
“Paul would never want to deny someone opportunity to learn because they didn’t have the funds,” Schneider continued. “We created this scholarship to honor his legacy. The more donations we receive, the more scholarships we can award each year.”
Hafner worked in the lighting industry for nearly 30 years. He created NAILD’s “The Transition of Legacy Sources to LED” (LS-I) and “Lighting Specialist II” (LS-II). LS-I helps lighting sales employees better understand how and when customers should retrofit their facilities from incandescent and compact fluorescent light technologies to solid-state lighting. LS-II takes that training one step further, focusing on retail, industrial, office and educational facilities. Both courses are a combination of expert technical instruction and hands-on field experience delivered through user-friendly, self-paced online courses that Hafner narrates.
NAILD also offers the Lighting Specialist- Controls (LS-C) training developed by Craig DiLouie. Energy codes are driving adoption of automatic lighting controls in new commercial buildings, while technology, utility rebates and strong growth in LED upgrades have increased demand for controls in existing buildings. Customers are looking for experts who can tell them what to do and select products.
To donate to the Paul Hafner Memorial Scholarship Fund, send a check to NAILD, 191 Clarksville Road, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550, Attn: Greta Cuyler.
For more information, visit: www.naild.org.
