As noted in this week’s commission agenda (and supplementary materials), Toni Tolbert Dixon is being recommend for the open position of Decatur Fire Chief beginning July 1st, 2009.

Her most recent resume can be found on pages 16-21 of the supplementary materials and Peggy Merriss’ letter of recommendation can be found on page 15.

Decatur’s first female fire chief!  Very cool!

I’m thinking this could be a Georgia first too.  This National Report Card of Women in Firefighting (pdf) states that there are only 31 female fire chiefs in the country as of 2008.  Also, “Among the 350,000 paid firefighters in the nation today, the 2000 Census reports that women number slightly more than 11,000 or 3.7%.  This figure places firefighting in the lowest 11 percent of all occupations in terms of women employees.”

The city has a pretty snazzed up job application (which includes the above pic) for a new fire chief up on its website. So if you know any qualified candidates, send ‘em along! Pay seems pretty good…though I’m not up-to-date on the average fire chief salary.

What happened to the old chief?

Deadline for submission is Sept. 12th.