Alex joined Derbyshire Fire Service in 1992 as a firefighter. At that time women made up less than 1% of the British Fire Service. Alex progressed through ranks in Derbyshire and moved to South Yorkshire in 2017 as the Assistant Chief Fire Officer, progressing to Deputy Chief in 2018 and becoming the first female Chief Fire Officer for South Yorkshire Fire in January 2020. Alex retired in May 2022 after 30 years’ service. Throughout her career Alex has worked across most references. She is a fully qualified Business Fire Safety officer, Breathing Apparatus Instructor and Critical Incident Debriefer. She has worked in Prevention and Inclusion, Protection, Response, Training and strategic planning As a Strategic Commander Alex has dealt with a number of major incidents including the widescale flooding in South Yorkshire in 2019 and co-chaired the Local Resilience Forum for South Yorkshire throughout the Covid pandemic, dealing with concurrent incidents including a protracted wildfire. Alex has been involved with Women in the Fire Service UK (WFS UK) since the early 90’s. This is a not for profit organisation set up to support women in all roles across the UK fire and rescue. Its overall aim is supporting the progression and retention of women and to promote an inclusive work environment for all. Since retiring Alex has worked for HMICFRS Scotland and has carried out various projects relating to FRS Culture and recruitment. She also sits on the Independent Challenge and Support Panel -NFCC Culture & Inclusion. Additionally, she has delivered input on the Multi Agency Gold Incident Command courses. Alex is 57, married to Paul and has a 19 year old daughter called Nell who is studying at Northumbria University. In 2019 Alex was awarded the ‘Most Inspirational Woman in Fire’ at the Excellence in Fire awards and in February 2022 she received the Queens Fire Service medal from The Princess Royal at Windsor Castle. She is also happy to share her journey as a woman, over coming imposter syndrome and her many challenges from firefighter to Chief Fire Officer, always believing she had the best job in the world!