Kathy Weaver

I think my greatest achievement was building the specialized rescue team for the county that they did not have. I started with firefighters, convincing them to train in water rescue because we had a lot of water in our area. Then I was given direction to include other agencies within the county, so I brought in corrections officers and beach safety officers. Combining all these people together to work as a team was a lot of fun, though in the beginning there was some adversarialness between corrections and fire. I was able to overcome that and get them to realize it really doesn't matter what happened in the past, we're here to work as a team. These were the people that came out first on the scene if we had a local emergency, saying what do we need, where do we need to go, and putting 100% effort into everything. They even went so far as being deployed to Gulfport, Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina. They left, went out of state and did what they were supposed to do. That was probably my greatest achievement, building this team and seeing them succeed.

The fire chief that hired me at Volusia County was the type of guy that really wanted to make things happen. The very first time I asked him how he wanted me to do something, he said, 'You figured that part out. From where we are to this end, and as long as it's not immoral, illegal, or unsafe, I'm fine with it, because the way I would do it may not be the same way you will do it. But that doesn't make either one of us wrong.' That really stuck with me. He was also very helpful even though he had way more important things to be dealing with. I would hand him something and ask him to preview it to make sure I had no grammatical issues, and he would red pencil it and I'd be fine with it. That was just the kind of person he was, to be just as helpful even though he had so many other responsibilities. I also have to credit my mom and dad. My mom was a stay-at-home mom who started out in nursing, and my dad was the breadwinner who worked two jobs even though he was a federal employee. They taught us that you have to work for what you want, nothing is given to you, don't look for a handout. They told us to embrace family, go out and achieve your goals, and do what you want to do in the world. I was the one that went left when everybody else went right, and though it was kind of a conundrum for them in the beginning, they grew to be very proud of what I did.

I would tell them to go after what they want. Take that step and be all about it. Invest yourself into what it is, whether it's the fact that you've got to take some extra training, but show your own ownership in it so that you're proud of what you're doing. Show that you mean what you say and be able to say it and do it. You've got to not only be able to walk the walk, but you gotta talk the walk too.

Kathy will be diving into add more detail regarding her incredible journey and what inspired and motivated her throughout her years professionally, the people who have impacted her life and served as inspirations and encouragement, What brings her joy in her life including her hobbies and interests and now that she has retired and able to explore more time with her family, How she would like to connect with other incredible women within our community and inspire our young readers, and any other details that are important to highlight all of her incredible accomplishments and accolades.

Truth and integrity, with integrity really being the most important, because without integrity, you're really just another person. For me, it was always about be truthful, be truthful with what happened, bad, good, or whatever, just be honest about what happened. I would tell those under me all the time, after you go up in a career and experience all the pitfalls and the things that you learn to get around, when you watch somebody now do the same thing, it was always fun for me to explain to them why they didn't really want to do that. They would look at me like, how do you know this? And I'd say, been there, done that, have the badge for it! But predominantly, they knew I needed people to understand that I was trustworthy and that I would get the job done. It wasn't something that I would shove off on somebody else. I also believe strongly in volunteerism. When my children were young, I kept them very active in Girl Scouting, soccer, baseball, softball, and I wanted to show them that volunteerism is a good thing to do. Now I volunteer with the Patriot Guard Riders supporting veterans and first responders, which are two groups very close to my heart.