When Valerie Frausto was sworn in as San Antonio’s first female fire chief in late 2024, she didn’t just inherit a department of 1,800-plus personnel; she inherited a culture she said was in need of repair.
After a year defined by leadership transitions and public scrutiny as the former fire chief retired following an investigation that found he made “inappropriate and offensive” comments, Frausto’s first full calendar year has been what she calls a “reset”— a return to the fundamentals of trust, tradition and long-term planning.
A San Antonio native with 24 years in the department, Frausto has spent the past 12 months balancing the weight of emergency response with the internal work needed. From approving custom station T-shirts to launching a department-wide “needs assessment” that will map out the next 15 years of growth, Frausto is moving the department with a forward-looking stride.
As she enters her second year, Frausto sat down with the San Antonio Report to discuss the quiet work of rebuilding a department’s morale, leadership structure and how she plans to prepare the department for a rapidly growing city.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You just finished your first full calendar year as San Antonio’s fire chief. When you look back on 2025, what stands out to you the most?
The entire year has been surreal, but overall it was a very smooth transition. What stands out the most is the overall change in leadership.
It was a long-awaited and much-needed reset to restore everybody’s sense of purpose, including my own. It was a great opportunity for us to sit down as a group, be open to others’ input, and look at where we are today and where we want to be years from now.
That’s really what stands out the most — the collaboration and the people stepping up during the last year. You see new motivation, like a renewed spirit. It’s kind of hard to explain, but that’s what I’m reflecting back on.
What’s the hardest part of leading the fire department that people outside of it don’t see or maybe don’t realize?
The extent of the responsibility. I go to sleep every night worried about what may happen. I just don’t want anybody suffering mentally or encountering physical challenges on the job. I want everybody to be safe and go home after every shift.
It weighs on me sometimes, and I think that’s something other people will never understand unless it’s on their shoulders. I hold that responsibility in the highest regard. It’s just what I do. It’s my responsibility, and I own that.
You made history as the first woman to lead the fire department. You’ve said you don’t fixate on that. Was there a time in your first year when that reality hit you, either publicly or internally?
It never really did. It came to light with all the interviews in the first couple of months — probably from November through January — and it still does to this day, but not to the extent that it did initially.
But I always go back to this: I don’t feel like it’s a big deal to me. I just feel like everybody else. If you work hard in the positions that you hold, over time — if you’re qualified and deserving of the opportunity — it will come. And that’s how I feel. It just kind of lined up right for me.
When you took over, the department was coming out of a very public leadership controversy. What did repairing the culture mean to you in practice, and what progress have you seen in the past year?
There’s been significant progress. I know that because I hear it from almost every interaction with those in the field, through various channels — not only above me, but below me as well.
Even executive leadership — City Manager Erik Walsh — has commented that just walking through H-E-B, he will have retired or active firefighters come up to him and say, “Man, you made the right choice. I’m hearing nothing but great things about Chief Frausto and the department and where they’re headed.”
That is definitely motivating and encouraging because I see it in practice every day. I see the new leadership team stepping up, wanting to make a difference and actually being open to hearing others’ opinions. They’re inviting them in to talk about what the priorities are, setting those priorities and then taking action on them.
That’s really what’s made a significant difference. I think the field knows that and feels that we’re open to their ideas.
Morale is a big topic of discussion when it comes to public safety departments. What would you say you’ve done to build trust with firefighters and paramedics?
In terms of morale, we don’t want to be a department that just checks the boxes. We want to make improvements and be mindful of every decision that comes out of this office. We’ve done a lot in terms of revising policies.
That includes things like vacation selections, which have been kind of limited in the past. We’ve been open to more flexibility, which improves work-life balance. We’ve also authorized things like custom T-shirts for individual stations. We came out with a new policy that allows for that, as well as custom helmet fronts.
For some, it may sound silly, but these are important changes for the department because we’re very tradition-based. That is what the fire service is known for, and we take pride in our traditions.
Those are some of the smaller changes we’ve made, and the department knows we’re working for them — and we’re not here to just fill a seat. We’re trying to make improvements for them.
Prior to becoming chief, you held a variety of leadership roles within the department. What part of your background do you think ended up being the most valuable?
Every step of the way — from the very beginning as a firefighter riding on the back of a fire truck to overseeing various divisions, and having my hand in things like the discipline process. All of that came together in the end, and all of it was extremely important.
It’s for that reason that we’re trying to strengthen the leadership pipeline internally. We’ve created a few new positions to get people in the mix and get them exposed to some of the things that go on day to day outside of the field.
Everybody loves being in the field. If I could spend 50% of my day in the field, I probably would. I’d still want to make calls. The reality is, somebody has to be here managing personnel. So it’s important that we prioritize the next generation of leaders, and that’s what we have been working toward.
Building off that, you’ve emphasized professional development and building a pipeline to leadership, mentorship and succession planning. What changes have you already implemented?
We are definitely stressing all the career opportunities that we offer. There are so many different job types, positions and assignments that are available. Some of them are on shift schedules, some are on a 40-hour week.
In either case, we’ve created new positions. One of those is the professional development chief, and that person is already in place. That role is really focused on promotion readiness and professional development.
We’re making sure firefighters have training opportunities, offering certifications and encouraging them to complete their degrees, because all of that is important as they move up the ranks. We want to be giving them that experience and that solid background that will support them every step of the way so they’re ready for those higher-level positions.
Just recently, we began working to bring everybody to the table — both from the union and the administrative side — to identify people who have a passion for training. We want to ensure that we’re developing a program where, as people promote, they’re going to be ready to take on those responsibilities.
That is something we just recently established, and we’re in the process of scheduling our first meeting. I think that’s going to go a long way by giving people the opportunity to present new ideas and identify where we need to improve — what other training we can put in place, and how we can support the promotion process.
What would you want year two to look like as chief, and what would be the biggest next step to get moving in that direction?
We made significant progress and improvements in year one. So in year two, we’re striving to do the same thing — and a lot of that is going to be centered around a needs assessment.
The needs assessment is something we’re going through the request for proposals process for, and we’re going to identify a firm that will break this department apart and look at staffing, equipment, apparatus and facilities.
They’re really going to look at everything to give us a good assessment of where we are and where we need to be 15 years from now. And that’s not only accounting for future city growth, but also looking at whether we’re even behind where we need to be at this point in time.
We don’t know exactly where we stand, and that report is going to serve as a master plan and planning tool. That’s what I’m looking forward to. We’re going to get a lot of our direction from that document.
