L.A. County Fire honors its first Asian American deputy chief

By John | Sunday, August 3, 2008 | No Comments

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Congrats to Helen Jo for being promoted to deputy chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department – Jo is the first – the first woman and the first Asian American to achieve such a rank for the fire department. Talk about breaking barriers! From the Los Angeles Times:

“Jo, who assumed her new position in April, joined the Fire Department in 1998 as a budget officer and became chief of the financial management division in 2002. During her tenure in that division, the department’s budget grew from $500 million to more than $910 million, she said… Jo emigrated with her family from Korea to Los Angeles when she was 4 1/2. She grew up in Koreatown and joined the county’s Auditor-Controller Department 20 years ago after studying finance and accounting at USC. She said that despite the obstacles facing female and minority workers, she has always been confident in her abilities and performance.”

As I have blogged before, when I first moved to California from the East Coast, it was a real shocker to see Asian American police officers or fire fighters. In San Francisco, the head of the police department is Heather Fong. And although she’s not Asian American, Joanne Hayes-White is the Chief of the San Francisco Fire Department – making San Francisco the largest urban fire department in the world with a female chief. It’s nice to see traditional barriers being broken!

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