With a Keynote By

Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore

The 37th Fire Commissioner of the Fire Department, City of New York (FDNY) is Lillian Bonsignore.

Commissioner Bonsignore was appointed as a New York City EMT in 1991 and initially assigned to EMS Station 14 at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. Commissioner Bonsignore was an instructor at the EMS Academy- CFR program during the terror attacks on September 11th and responded from Fort Totten in a convoy of EMS members to the World Trade Center where she took part in rescue and recovery efforts. She moved up the ranks to become a Lieutenant in 2005, serving in the South Bronx, and later became a Paramedic in 2007. After being promoted to Captain in 2010, she served as Station Commander of two EMS Stations in Brooklyn and was promoted to Deputy Chief in 2013, serving in Queens and the EMS Academy.

She was appointed Chief of EMS Academy at Fort Totten in 2016, where she was responsible for the continuing education and EMS recertification of nearly 13,000 members of the FDNY. In addition, Commissioner Bonsignore was responsible for all FDNY EMS Officer training and command of the FDNY EMS Probationary School.

In 2019, Commissioner Bonsignore was appointed by then Commissioner Daniel Nigro as the Chief of EMS. She was the first female to achieve a 4-star rank in EMS in the history of FDNY. Commissioner Bonsignore led FDNY EMS through the COVID-19 Pandemic, a time of record high call volume.

Commissioner Bonsignore graduated from the FDNY Fire Officers Management Institute (FOMI) and has completed several leadership programs including the Naval Post Graduate School-Executive leadership, FDNY/USMA Counterterrorism Leadership- Combating Terrorism, TEEX –EMS Operations and Planning for Weapons of Mass Destruction and multiple National Incident Management systems courses.

Commissioner Bonsignore retired from the FDNY in 2022.