Women's Equality Day Spotlight: Fed Fire Hawaii's First Female Regional Training Chief

In the lead up to Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26, we are highlighting some of the exceptional women at Commander, Navy Region Hawaii (CNRH) who did not let their gender stand in the way of achieving their goals.

This week we interview Allison Nihei, regional chief of training for the Federal Fire Department, which provides fire protection and emergency medical services to all Department of Defense military installations on Oahu and the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. Fed Fire also provides mutual aid to the City and County of Honolulu and most recently to Kauai County.

When Allison Nihei joined CNRH's Federal Fire Department 23 years ago, she was a young firefighter recruit. She went on to hold every single position in the department, becoming the first female firefighter to achieve the rank of regional training chief.

Being a female in a male-dominant career field, Nihei faced multiple challenges throughout her career and was told that women did not belong in the fire department. She set out to prove the naysayers wrong, working hard and advancing through the firefighter ranks. Nihei held positions as a firefighter, advanced level emergency medical technician, fire lieutenant, fire captain, and fire battalion chief of operations, which led to her promotion in May as regional training chief.

What does Women’s Equality mean to you?

It means that we can do pretty much things that men can do. Through innovation, women have taken a different role in society. Take Kamala Harris for example as the vice president of the United States…being female and a minority, she represents women in society who have broken those barriers and attained positions where normally men sit and hold. It shows the world that we can be equal.

Name one female figure who inspires you and why?

My mom. She was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky in the 1940s. Her father was pure Hawaiian and her mom was Swiss/American Indian from the Midwest. I think a part of my success was knowing the things that my mom went through as a mixed race minority and the things that her and her siblings had to go through while growing up just kept me going. And I think I got a part of her in me.

What ways have you seen equality change for the better?

Well, we can use my office as an example. I was the first female and am the first female in the federal fire department in Hawaii to attain the ranks that I have. But there's also a handful of women there, and I also know there's also a female who held the rank of battalion chief in the Honolulu Fire Department. It’s through respect earned through my career, in doing the hard work, showing my male peers that I can do things that they can do. But when I became a leader and started stepping into a leadership role, I think it was more of my compassionate style of leadership -- that I care and it really means a lot to even men in a male-dominated field.

How do you hope to inspire and empower other women?

The first thing that comes to my mind is by continuing to do what I do. During recruitments here at Fed Fire, we have female recruits that attend the course. With this being my third go around of recruitments, female recruits always gravitate towards me and I get questions like “how did you become a firefighter?” and “What is it like being a female in a fire fighting career?” I just tell them just being out there and doing things like this can show we can do things. There’s a lot of opportunities out there. You can pretty much attain whatever you want to do -- you just got to put in the hard work.