Title: National Forest Fire Chief

Company: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service

Location: Grass Valley, Calf.

Having lead more than 2,400 firefighters and aircraft in a battle against a 90,000-acre wildfire in the rugged foothills north of Santa Barbara, Jeanne Pincha-Tulley retires as National Forest Fire Chief. It’s the kind of challenge she’s relished since 2005, when she was promoted to Incident Commander Type 1, in charge of California Interagency Incident Management Team 3. This elite, 70-member strike force of command, operations, planning, logistics and finance specialists is one of 17 such teams under Forest Service leadership on call nationwide to direct the response to major disasters. Ms. Pincha-Tulley chose this career path because she was interested in the profession. She pursued a college degree in forestry and realized that she loved it.

Ms. Pincha-Tulley’s vision is to continue Incident Management and continue to qualify more Incident Managers. She successfully qualified four Incident Managers, and hopes to continue doing some more, as well as doing some teaching and mentoring. The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation’s 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres (780,000 km2). Major divisions of the agency include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, and the Research and Development branch. What inspires Ms. Pincha-Tulley most is her ability to be able to do what she does successfully? She sees it as being an application of an art form and not a job. Her ability to play with fire, as known in the fire industry as “dancing fire” without losing structures or people’s lives is truly what inspires her.