Portland, Ore. swears in Chief Lauren Johnson from Dallas. Several other departments have done the same over the last three years.<\/p>\n
DALLAS \u2014 After more than two decades of service with Dallas Fire-Rescue (DFR), former Assistant Fire Chief Lauren Johnson has officially taken the helm as Portland\u2019s new fire chief.<\/p>\n
Johnson, who spent 26 years rising through the ranks in Dallas, was sworn in this week during a ceremony attended by colleagues, friends, and supporters \u2014 including some from Dallas who made the trip to celebrate the milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t words to express how thankful I was,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Her career path at Dallas Fire-Rescue, one of the busiest departments in the country, took her from the front lines of emergency response to leadership inside Dallas City Hall, where she gained experience in crisis management and city budgeting.<\/p>\n
“I think [Dallas] City Council really pushes us to develop and to consider other options. And I think that makes us hearty,” said Johnson.<\/p>\n
Chief of Public Safety Dominique Artis, a longtime colleague and friend, praised Johnson\u2019s trajectory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe she went through every rank in our department,\u201d Artis said. \u201cI expect nothing but good things from Chief Johnson and look forward to seeing what she\u2019s going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Each side of our city has different issues that the chiefs must think about,” Artis added. \u00a0<\/p>\n
With the diversity and big-city challenges in Dallas, he said it gives opportunities for DFR members to grow in their careers.<\/p>\n
In the last three years, Dallas Fire-Rescue has solidified its reputation for developing leaders who go on to lead departments across the country. Cities including Victoria, Sunnyvale, and Arlington in Texas, along with Cincinnati and Orlando, have appointed former DFR members to their top posts.<\/p>\n
Johnson now joins that growing list, leading 766 members of Portland Fire and Rescue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only one spot at the top,\u201d Johnson reflected. \u201cIf that\u2019s your ambition and your aspiration, you might need to look at other places where you can make a difference in a different city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Dallas, Johnson said it was hard to leave home, but she leaves with gratitude for a department that she says shaped who she is, and a dedication to her new city: Portland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portland, Ore. swears in Chief Lauren Johnson from Dallas. Several other departments have done the same over the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-167638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-tx","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115074895133834295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}