JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As she sits in her office in downtown Jacksonville, Chief M. Dallas Cooke is mindful of the moment she’s living in.
She’s the first Black female division chief in the history of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department — a title that carries both honor and responsibility.
“Gratitude. I’m thankful. I’m so humbled,” Cooke said. “But I also think about a bigger picture — this is bigger than me. Me holding this position is one that’s for the community. It’s for the future firefighters that look like me.”
A long road from teen mom to chief
Cooke calls her journey a long road.
She became a teen mom during her senior year of high school. With a child depending on her, every decision carried extra weight.
She commuted back and forth from Clay County to Orlando, eventually earning her bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida and becoming a licensed practical nurse.
“My daughter was looking at me. She was watching me,” she said. “She was one of the biggest reasons why I couldn’t let obstacles get in my way. I had to keep pushing. I had to keep going.”
Finding a new calling in emergency rooms and fire halls
Working in the emergency room, Cooke realized she wanted to do even more.
In 2009, she joined Jacksonville Fire and Rescue as a firefighter, beginning a 17‑year rise through the ranks. Along the way, she earned a master’s degree and later began working toward her Doctor of Nursing Practice.
She balanced it all — school, work, motherhood and a growing leadership role in the department.
Pushing through unimaginable loss
In 2015, while pursuing her doctorate, Cooke’s life was forever changed. Her mother was murdered — a loss that shook her family to its core.
“That was probably the toughest mental and emotional battle that I have ever had to fight. Legitly,” Cooke said. “Grief does not just disappear.”
What carried her through, she said, was the example her mother set.
“I had a strong mom,” Cooke said. “Just the level of discipline that she instilled in me was my strength.”
Determined to honor her mother’s memory, Cooke kept going — graduating, becoming a nurse practitioner, caring for patients in the hospital, saving lives as a firefighter, and balancing life as a wife and mother.
Making history at Jacksonville Fire and Rescue
In 2025, her perseverance met opportunity.
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan officially appointed Cooke as Division Chief of Fire Rescue, making her the first Black woman in JFRD history to hold the title.
To Fire Chief Percy Golden, her promotion is about more than a position.
“To me, it means progress,” Golden said.“Chief Cooke, she fits right in. She’s not a pushover, she knows her job. She’s respected on this job as well. And she holds her own. There’s no room that she feels uncomfortable in — and that’s what I like about her.”
Mentoring the next generation
Cooke also serves as a mentor to many women in the department and is intentional about being visible.
“When I started in this career 17 years ago, there were not a lot of women that looked like me,” she said. “Even through fire academy, there were not a lot of women that looked like me. It was important for me to not only be there for women, but to be there for women who looked like me.”
For her, this promotion is proof that representation matters — and a reminder that the work isn’t done.
“Progress isn’t just about being the first,” Cooke said. “It’s about making sure that I’m not the last person that looks like me to sit in leadership roles like this.”
Shaping care across Jacksonville
Beyond making history, Cooke is reshaping how care is delivered across Jacksonville.
She helped launch a program in 2023 to protect vulnerable residents, and now oversees advanced rescue teams delivering critical care citywide — expanding the department’s reach far beyond traditional emergency calls.
For Cooke, every title and every promotion comes back to the same core mission: service, community and opening doors for those who will come after her.