Facilities Management associate director earns credential

January 06, 2011

John Herrera, associate director of ASU Facilities Management Residential Facilities, is now John Herrera, EFP. Extra-fine person? Yes, that too, but Ferrara recently received his Educational Facilities Professional (EFP) credential from APPA, the association dedicated to leadership in educational facilities. Herrera joins ASU Facilities colleagues Adam Polka, Rick Pretzman and Fernando Reyna in holding the EFP certification. Herrera earned his bachelor’s degree in design and his master’s in public administration from ASU and has been a staff member at ASU for the past eight years. To obtain his EFP credential, Herrera participated in a two-year program called the Institute for Facilities Management, which prepared him for the EFP exam. “Before the exam, there was a one-day refresher course that summarized key components of the 2-year program,” Herrera said. “The exam was roughly 150 questions and I was allotted three hours to complete it.” The exam covered four core subject areas: general administration and management; operations and maintenance; energy and utilities; and planning, design and construction. “The EFP is a way to validate the unique knowledge and competency required of an accomplished professional in the educational facilities field,” said Jack Colby, former APPA president and chair of APPA’s Board for Educational Facilities Professionals Certification. “Working for an educational institution is a calling — one that affects the future every day. The EFP program was designed to confirm professional achievements in the field and illustrate a basic, fundamental understanding of what it takes to create and maintain safe, functional, and inspiring learning environments, now and for future generations.” As associate director of Facilities Management, with its 472 employees, Herrera is responsible for university housing and Memorial Union facilities on the Tempe campus, and housing facilities on the West and Polytechnic campuses as the contract administrator to ASU’s property management partners. He helps administer “The biggest challenges facing universities in this budget crunch is the ability to provide continued excellent services with less funding,” he said.