Captain Deborah D.
Hirsh, USN (Ret) is currently serving as the
Chief Human Resources Officer of the Los Angeles
Unified School District (LAUSD). This is her
first post-retirement position, which encompasses
overseeing all personnel issues for the second
largest school district in the United States.
LAUSD's 100,000 full and part time personnel
serve 750,000 largely economically disadvantaged
children, attending more than 800 schools.
Captain Hirsh, a veteran of 26 years on active
duty, began her naval career with several
varied tours early in her career in communications
and intelligence, serving on major fleet and
international staffs, as well as operational
units, before settling into what was to become
her specialty, recruiting. After a very successful
tour as the Executive Officer, and then, Commanding
Officer of Navy Recruiting District, Omaha
in 1989, she was selected to head up the Officer
Recruiting School in Pensacola, Florida. Later,
she became the Commanding Officer of Navy
Recruiting District New York, arguably the
most complex and challenging recruiting district
in the country. Under her leadership, Navy
Recruiting District New York went from last
to best in the nation in two short years.
This was followed by a tour in the Pentagon
in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Personnel and Readiness as the
Director of all Military Recruitment Advertising.
A television military recruitment advertising
campaign spearheaded by Captain Hirsh and
employing the Oscar-ominated Passion of
the Christ cinematographer Caleb Deschanel
won the prestigious advertising industry Effie
award in 1996.
After the Pentagon, Captain Hirsh was selected
for Major Command and served first as the
Director of Operations for the Navy Recruiting
Command, followed by Commander, Navy Recruiting
Northeast Region with eight subordinate commands.
She rounded out her rich Navy experiences
as the Chief Human Resources Officer at the
Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California
before retiring in 2002.
Relocating with her family to Los Angeles,
she has proven that a smooth transition from
military life is very doable. She has found
that the leadership skills, coupled with the
MBA she gained while serving on active duty,
are directly translatable to the civilian
sector and in great demand. In one short year
after arriving at the Los Angeles Unified
School District, she raised the quality of
the district's teaching force from 71% highly
qualified teachers to over 94% overall. Her
focus is now turning to improving the quality,
selection and training of the district's 800
plus school principals, and she is actively
pursuing initiatives that would allow transitioning
military commanding officers to serve as school
principals.
Captain Hirsh is also the proud mother of
16-year old TV and movie actress Hallee Hirsh,
who is best known as Anthony Edwards' (Top
Gun's Goose) recalcitrant daughter, Rachel,
on the hit television series ER. Hallee can
also be seen this season on CBS's JAG, in
the role of Mattie Grace, Harm's adopted daughter.
Both Hallee and her mom think this is pretty
cool considering Hallee grew up in a Navy
family.
