Leading through practice: How a local female fire chief grew as a leader
Early in her career as a firefighter, Pleasant Hill Fire Chief Jamie Lee hadn’t envisioned herself leading the department. But the former chief of the Pleasant Hill Fire Department told her she was going to be a fire chief someday.
“I laughed at him. I’m like, ‘Nope, not me. You’re talking to the wrong person,’” Lee said.
He was right. In 2018, Lee became the interim chief of the Pleasant Hill department. She became the official chief in 2019.
This resistance to recognizing oneself as a leader is common in women. Former CEO of Business Publications Corp. Suzanna de Baca recently wrote about the phenomenon, called the Leader-Identity/Competence Paradox, for Fearless. Even when they’ve proven their aptitude, women are still less likely than men to self-identify as leaders.
It took time for Lee to believe in her own capabilities. But after completing three degrees and beginning her Ph.D. in seven years and proving herself a leader for her department, she no longer doubts where she belongs.
“Once they gave me that interim job and put me in that leadership role, and I sat here behind this desk and did everything that I thought I could not do, that’s what triggered in my mind that I can do this,” Lee said.
Servant leadership
As a kid, Lee always wanted to be an ambulance driver when she grew up.
She received her EMT certification in 1997 and her paramedic certification in 2001 and got set to work on a career of helping others. She dispatched the medical helicopter at Iowa Methodist Medical Center before becoming a 911 dispatcher for the sheriff’s office.
It was during this job that she met Ryan Hill, a trainer at the sheriff’s office and a captain with the Pleasant Hill Fire Department.
“I didn’t really have fire as a goal of mine,” Lee said. “My husband at the time and I were going to build a house, and [Hill] talked me into looking in Pleasant Hill over by him. So in 2006, we moved out to Pleasant Hill and I got on the department.”
She continued to work full time as a 911 dispatcher while focusing on the emergency medical services aspect of the fire department part time. She gained her Fire I and Fire II certifications and started moving up the chain of command.
When the department chief decided to retire in 2018, she offered to serve as the interim chief while the city worked on hiring someone new.
“I just told him, ‘I’m here. I just want this department to continue to move forward. I’m here to do anything I can do to help you,’” Lee said. She continued working full time as a dispatcher as she stepped into the full-time interim chief role.
From the beginning, Lee wanted to be a servant leader. She saw the growth her department was making, hiring more full-time firefighters and working toward building a new substation, and she wanted to do her part in keeping that momentum.
That leadership shone brightly early on in her stint as interim chief when severe flash flooding threatened her town. She was on vacation with her son in St. Louis when she received a call at 11 p.m. requesting the use of her department’s boats.
She packed up her son and drove through the night to help protect Pleasant Hill from the water.
“That day is what changed my mind. That’s the day I’m like, ‘I can do this. I want to do this,’” she said.
Lee kept the interim chief position for longer than she had originally anticipated. It served as a sort of on-the-job interview where she was able to show she had the ability to take the job full time.
She did just that in 2019. Today, she’s one of four female fire chiefs in Iowa, three of which are in the Des Moines metro area. She serves as vice president of the Polk County Fire Chiefs Association alongside Jenn Porter, the association’s president and chief of the Norwalk fire department.
“Back when I first got into the EMT and fire service, at a majority of the agencies there were never women. The number of females has increased tremendously in the last 25 to 30 years, and I think you’re going to see that a lot more,” Lee said.
Striving for more
When she decided to put her name in for the full-time chief job, Lee knew she needed to expand her education. Even if the Pleasant Hill department didn’t hire her for the job, she wanted to become a fire chief somewhere, and that required at least an associate’s degree.
Her educational journey expanded much further. She completed her associate’s in fire science while working full time as both a dispatcher and the interim fire chief as a single mom. Next she earned her bachelor’s degree in fire science and then decided to achieve a master’s degree in organizational leadership and public administration.
Today, she’s pursuing her Ph.D. in organizational leadership. Her dissertation explores women leaders in the fire service.
“What I’m focusing a lot on is why women struggle getting into the fire service and why are they struggling climbing the ladder to that leadership role,” Lee said.
Lee often encounters assumptions about who should be in that leadership role. People often will request to speak to the chief, more specifically asking to speak to “him.” When she arrives on the scene of an incident, people will frequently defer to her male assistant chief.
However, she says people are normally more comfortable talking with her once they understand she’s in charge. She’s earned the respect of her crews by showing her dedication through action and reliability.
“I take blame for anything that happens here, because I’m the leader,” she said. “I’m just as responsible for them as they are for themselves.”
Lee plans to continue in a leadership position once she’s able to retire from the department. She has some interest in going back to 911 dispatching and leading there.
No matter where she ends up, she remains dedicated to a people-first leadership approach.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m a female or a male. It’s about doing the job and knowing your people and being there for your people,” Lee said. “I want to make sure that each one of those members are taken care of.”
