HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia fire chief is joining other global leaders, advocates, artists, scientists, activists and entrepreneurs on the Time 100 list for 2018.
“It’s very humbling,” Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader said on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
“But I think that the bigger picture here is that the world is actually paying attention to all the positive things Huntington, West Virginia is doing to turn the tide in this epidemic.”
Rader joined the Huntington Fire Department in 1994. In 2017, she became the first woman to lead a professional fire department in West Virginia.
She’s one of three women featured in “Heroin(e),” an Oscar-nominated documentary short available on Netflix.
Before and since the film’s release, she has traveled across the U.S. to talk about the opioid epidemic.
.@blazinwv joins @HoppyKercheval to talk about being named to @TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/GDB1luGQqk
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) April 19, 2018
“If every city had a chief like Jan Rader, our country would be a better place,” U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) wrote about Rader for “Time.”
“Rader has spent her career running toward fires and training the next generation of firefighters to do the same and, right now in West Virginia, our biggest fire is the opioid epidemic.”
During the first three months of 2018, drug overdose totals in Cabell County were down 36 percent compared with the same time in 2017, according to Huntington and Cabell County health officials.
“The key is that you have to stay positive and you have to work together as a community and I think that’s the huge difference when you talk about Huntington vs. other communities,” Rader said.
“We’ve been chiseling away at this for about three years now and we have great leadership from Mayor Steve Williams and he’s allowed us to do what we need to do and we’re fighting it from many different avenues — prevention, treatment options and law enforcement.”
Earlier this week in Huntington, dozens of arrests were made targeting an alleged large-scale drug trafficking operation running between Cabell County and Detroit, Mich., according to Mike Stuart, U.S. attorney for West Virginia’s Southern District.
“Like they are in many communities across the country, overdoses and overdose deaths are a frequent occurrence in Huntington,” Manchin wrote for Time.
“Like many local heroes, Rader is on the front lines combating this epidemic every day. Nevertheless, her strength and compassion never waver. She has saved countless lives and has been unrelenting in her commitment to help people struggling with substance-use disorders return to lead productive lives.”
In January, Rader was a guest of Manchin’s for the State of the Union Address in Washington, D.C.
Manchin said Rader is the type of leader West Virginia and the U.S. needs right now.
“We won’t give up,” Rader said. “We’re very resilient here in Huntington and we plan on being known as the center of the solutions for this epidemic.”
Those with Time said the Time 100 list is meant to a designation of individuals whose time, in their estimation, is “now.”
Editors make the final determinations, but public votes were considered.
For 2018, those named included President Donald Trump, Prince Harry, Tiffany Haddish, the Parkland, Fl. school shooting survivors, Cardi B, Chloe Kim, Peggy Whitson, Carl June, Lena Waithe, Roseanne Barr, Greta Gerwig, Christian Siriano, Carmen Yulin Cruz, J.J. Watt, Justin Trudeau, Kim Jong Un, Scott Pruitt, Tarana Burke, Maxine Waters and Oprah Winfrey.
Rader was included in the pioneers category.
The full list is available HERE.
The Time 100 Gala will be held on Apr. 24 in New York City.