Joanne Hayes-White

Joanne Hayes-White first female Fire Chief in San Francisco Fire Department's history.
Joanne Hayes-White is a mom of three boys and is a San Francisco native. Joanne Hayes-White's middle son Sean has had multiple heart surgeries since he was two weeks old. She is divorced, has a full time job, and is a mother of three. Joanne Hayes-White works hard, never gives up, and overcomes so much since she was hired in 1990 to the San Francisco Fire Department.

Joanne Hayes-White has worked hard in her career as a firefighter. She has moved up through the ranks fairly quickly since she joined in 1990. "She was hired as a firefighter in April of 1990, promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1993, and to the rank of Captain in January. Three months later rank as acting Battalion Chief" ( San Francisco Fire Department). Ms. Hayes-White worked hard at everything she did to help improve the operations of the fire department in San Francisco. Later she was promoted again and was in charge of even more operations and people. According to the San Francisco Fire Department, she was "Promoted to Assistant Deputy Chief in 1998, she was responsible for the Division of Support, the bureau of Communication, and many more operations." When she was promoted this last time she helped to improve the 911 system and put it as one system in one area. This helped to speed up response times and to help figure out what help was needed, when it was needed.

Joanne Hayes-White never gave up, no matter the odds, with being the only female fire chief in the San Francisco Fire Department. She is the 25th fire chief, she has majorly improved the department. "The Fire Department's community involvement has noticeably increased during her tenure" ( San Francisco Fire Department). She sped up response time, increased functions of the departments of the first responders and their involvement. According to the San Francisco Fire Department "San Francisco is the largest urban fire department in the world with a female fire chief." This takes someone with a strong will and personality to not give up when it gets hard and stressful.

Joanne Hayes-White has overcome a lot of media publicity of her being a bad fire chief because of the fact that she is a female. "San Francisco should have found a man to be fire chief."(George). She is overcoming a lot of bad publicity. "Chief Hayes-white oversees a department of approximately 1,500 members and an operating budget of $350 million." This is a lot of stressful environment, however she has done well with improving the fire department and other operations.

Joanne Hayes-White has worked hard, never gave up, and overcame a lot of stress and has improved the first responders' times and involvement with the community. She has spearheaded many operations in the fire department and the community. Joanne Hayes-White worked hard, never gave up, and overcame a lot since she was hired in 1990 to the San Francisco Fire Department. I consider Joanne one of my heroes because she stands up for herself and others, she never gave up, she overcame bad publicity and the standards set around her by others.