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July 14: She’s A Woman. She’s A Poet. And She’s Also An Elite Wildland Firefighter.

Hotshot crews are the U.S. Forest Service’s most elite wildland firefighters. Crews face demanding physical requirements in order to tackle the most aggressive and remote fires. So, how does a woman with a poetry degree end up on a crew in this male-dominated field? Author Kelly Ramsey discusses her experience in her new memoir “Wildfire Days: A Woman, A Hotshot Crew, and The Burning American West.”

A Valley native, Elizabeth earned her bachelor's degree in English Language Literatures from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her master's degree in journalism from New York University. She has covered a range of beats. Her agriculture reporting for the Turlock Journal earned her a first place award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado is KVPR's News Director. Prior to joining the station's news department in 2022, he was a reporter for PBS NewsHour and The Fresno Bee.
Jonathan Linden is a podcast producer at KVPR. Born and raised in Riverside, he's a Southern California native. Jonathan's passion for public radio began at a young age when his brother would play NPR while driving him home from middle school. He earned his B.A. in journalism from Biola University in 2019.