An Army veteran who has spent the past 24 years as an Austin firefighter is now the city’s first female fire battalion chief, officials announced Monday.
Rebecca Ackerman, who is one of 73 women — including Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr — among 1,007 employees in the Austin Fire Department, was promoted to battalion chief after serving as captain in the communications section. She will be responsible for all the personnel and equipment at the department’s fire and rescue station at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. “The ‘family’ business in my family is the Austin Fire Department,” Ackerman said in a statement. “My dad (Richard ‘Sticks’ Farris, who served 29½ years and retired in 1997) was an assistant chief at AFD. … We were the first father-daughter team at AFD, and he is truly my hero.”