Rebecca (Becky) F. Denlinger was Fire Chief of the Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services department in the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia area. Her career with Cobb County began in 1977 when she was hired as a Firefighter. She attained the ranks of fire engineer, lieutenant, captain, battalion chief, division chief and held the position of Fire Chief from 1997 until her retirement in January 2008. Becky served on the Georgia Homeland Security Task Force, the Executive Session on Domestic Preparedness at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the National Infrastructure Advisory Council to which she was appointed by President G.W. Bush, and the Board of Directors of the National Fire Protection Association.
Following her retirement from Cobb County, Becky served as Fire Commissioner of British Columbia from February 2008. She was subsequently appointed Assistant Deputy Minister/Fire and Emergency Management Commissioner responsible for Emergency Management BC, in 2009. Becky was a member of the Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management, the Canadian Council of Emergency Management Organisations, and the Canadian Council of Fire Marshals and Fire Commissioners.
Becky was appointed Deputy Minister with the Ministry of Community Sport and Cultural Development in 2013. She was appointed Deputy Minister Emergency Management within the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure in 2015, then within the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General in 2017 and served in that position until her retirement in 2019.
Becky was active on the Provincial/Territorial and Federal/Provincial Territorial Committees of Deputy Ministers Responsible for Emergency Management.
In 2019 Becky was appointed to the Board of Directors of Ocean Networks Canada and continues to serve in that capacity. In 2023 Becky was named a visiting fellow at the University of Western Ontario as a member of the Climate-Resilient Infrastructure and Buildings research team at the Western Academy of Advanced Research. She is a member of the National Fire Protection Association, where she also served on the Board of Directors, and the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
Becky holds associate and bachelor’s degrees in liberal arts from Thomas Edison State University.
Becky has completed the Harvard Senior Executives in State and Local Government Fellowship Program, enjoyed Chief Fire Officer Designation from the Center for Public Safety Excellence, and is a past Member of the Institute of Fire Engineers.