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Fire Commissioner
Laura Kavanagh
The FDNY Commissioner, appointed by the Mayor of the City of New York, is a civilian executive who manages the agency’s more than 17,000 employees and $2 billion annual budget. Commissioner Laura Kavanagh and her command civilian and uniformed staff lead all firefighting and EMS operations, the 911 dispatch center, arson investigations, and fire prevention programming and permitting. The FDNY also plays a role in the city’s multi-agency counterterrorism strategy.
Commissioner Kavanagh has nearly two decades of experience in public policy, government and emergency management. She has served for more than 10 years at the FDNY, steadily rising in rank from assistant to deputy commissioner, before serving for five years as former FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro's first deputy commissioner, the department’s second highest-ranking post, where she was also the second woman to ever serve in that role. When Commissioner Kavanagh became Commissioner in 2022, she became the first woman to lead the FDNY in its 159-year history.
Commissioner Kavanagh’s tenure has been marked by sweeping improvements to the FDNY’s technology infrastructure, including the department’s adoption of robotics, smart devices and innovative safety equipment aimed at protecting firefighters and emergency services personnel. Under Commissioner Kavanagh’s leadership, the FDNY has significantly increased funding for members' health and safety, critical safety equipment, cancer reduction, and mental health counseling. She also played a critical role infusing millions of dollars into the Emergency Medical System, increasing ambulances, EMTs and Paramedics.
As a senior official in the FDNY for the last decade, Commissioner Kavanagh has helped lead the department’s responses to line-of-duty deaths, acts of terror, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She led the department’s reform efforts in the wake of a groundbreaking 2014 settlement of a federal discrimination lawsuit that has led to an overhaul in how the FDNY recruits and retains members of color. Commissioner Kavanagh’s work in the wake of the suit has made the make-up of the workforce the most diverse it has been in the department's history, while tripling the number of women serving as firefighters. Commissioner Kavanagh has improved the transparency of FDNY’s promotion and transfer process, in addition to using expert panels to strengthen the merit-based system at the center of the department’s personnel decisions.
Prior to joining the FDNY, Commissioner Kavanagh was a senior City Hall official. Earlier in her career she worked as a public affairs consultant for non-profit community organizations, political campaigns, and labor unions.
Commissioner Kavanagh holds a master’s in public policy from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations from Whittier College. She’s also studied at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
An avid runner, Commissioner Kavanagh has completed two New York City Marathons and is a regular participant in stair climbs honoring fallen first responders and their families.