Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday tapped a 31-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department as its second-ever female commissioner after he takes office on Jan. 1, 2026.
Mamdani’s announcement came on the same day that outgoing Mayor Eric Adams swore in his own pick to head the FDNY in the final days of his administration.
The mayor-elect’s choice for FDNY commissioner, Lillian Bonsignore, has seen her share of tragedies that put the department to the test — she was on the front lines for the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and served as FDNY’s chief of emergency management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Bonsignore’s calm, decisive leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic — when EMS professionals were more vital than ever — is exactly the kind of leadership our city needs in moments of uncertainty,” Mamdani said in a news release. “Together, we will deliver public safety and public excellence to New Yorkers across the five boroughs, through five-alarm fires and medical emergencies alike.”
Bonsignore first joined the FDNY in 1991 and, after 9/11, ascended quickly through the ranks. In 2002, she was promoted to lieutenant and advanced to captain three years later.
In 2009, Bonsignore was bumped up to deputy chief. Ten years later, Bonsignore made history when she was appointed as the chief of EMS operations, becoming both the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to hold this title in the department’s 155-year history.
“Throughout my career, it has been the firefighters and EMS providers I served alongside — those who show up every day ready to put their lives on the line for this city — who have guided my work,” Bonsignore said in a news release.
Also on Tuesday, Mamdani named Javier Lojan and Zachary Iscol as, respectively, as the city’s interim sanitation and emergency management commissioners, respectively. The mayor-elect indicated in his announcement that the short-term appointments will ensure continuity of crucial city services during the winter months.
Later on the same afternoon that Mamdani unveiled his picks for his upcoming administration, Adams swore in Mark Guerra to head the FDNY for the final weeks of 2025. FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker resigned from the job on Dec. 19.
At a news conference announcing Guerra’s appointment, Adams cited the massive January 2022 high-rise fire in the Bronx that killed 17 people as his reasoning for keeping someone at the FDNY’s helm — if only for less than two weeks — noting that public safety emergencies “don’t go on holiday.”
“If you look at the beginning of my time in office, we had a horrific fire that took the lives of a large number of Bronxites,” Adams said.
