LORI MILLER
CLASS OF 1977

Lori Miller graduated from Girard High School in 1977. She ranked number three in her class and was class president all four years. This was the infancy of interscholastic sports for women. Lori participated and lettered in basketball and softball all four years of high school. She was first team all-county basketball for three years and first team all-county in softball at shortstop for two years and was co-captain for both teams. She participated in swimming during the summer and was pool manager at the Girard Community Pool. 

Lori's college choice was the University of Colorado in Boulder. Graduating with a physical education degree and teaching credentials for K-12, she taught in a private school for four years. During this time, she coached three sports at Boulder & Centaurus High Schools and became a basketball official. She worked summers at a private swim and tennis club and volunteered as an EMT on an ambulance company. She taught CPR and first aid courses for the American Red Cross and the University of Colorado.

In 1985, Lori was one of 1000 applicants that applied for nine positions with the Boulder Fire-Rescue Department in Boulder, Colorado. Lori was one of three women to be hired and began her 28 year career in the fire service. She promoted up through the ranks of firefighter, engineer, lieutenant and became the only Boulder Fire-Rescue woman to achieve the rank of captain. During this tenure, she served as an assistant fire marshal, dive team leader and acting battalion chief. Lori was named Zonta Woman of the year in 2000.

Leaving Boulder Fire-Rescue in 2004, she accepted the position of division chief of training for the Summit Fire Authority, managed by the Red, White and Blue Fire District in Breckenridge, Colorado. In 2006, Lori was appointed as the district's deputy chief of operations and served in this position for five and a half years. In June 2011, Lori became the first and only female fire chief of an all-career fire department in Colorado. Lori, in her first year at the reins, piloted the Red, White and Blue Fire District to international accreditation through the Commission on Public Safety Excellence, landing the district among an elite group that includes only four other fire agencies in Colorado.

Lori recently retired and is ready to travel and enjoy all that the Colorado mountains have to offer. She is an avid cross-country and down-hill skier, mountain biker and loves camping and golf. She has participated in biathlons and triathlons.