Ep.22, Kristen Ziman

Kristen Ziman joined the Aurora Police force in 1991 as a police cadet and became a sworn officer in 1994. She worked in patrol, field training, community policing and investigations as a domestic violence detective before being promoted to sergeant in 2003.  She was promoted to lieutenant in 2008 and to Commander in 2010 and Chief of Police in January of 2016, becoming the first female chief in the departments history. She recently retired after 30 years with the department and launched a professional speaking and consulting business to pursue her passion of helping organizations through leadership challenges. She also led her department through a mass shooting where five people were killed and five of her officers were shot.Kristen is also the author of Reimagining Blue: Thoughts on Life, Leadership, and a New Way Forward in Policing, a passionate and personal memoir of a misunderstood profession through the vantage point of a female police chief. On this episode Kristen shares her journey from an 18 year old intern to the chief of police and what she learned through it all.