Who She Is
In her first interview with ATF, Cindy Chang shared two big goals: join ATF’s elite National Response Team and become a Certified Fire Investigator. She grew up in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh, where her father, a nuclear engineer, often gave her difficult math problems to solve. She studied psychology at Wellesley College and researched careers in fire science while she was there. To earn her certification through ATF’s program, she had to investigate at least 100 fires, write more than 80 reports on where and how fires started, and take graduate-level fire science classes through Oklahoma State University. She finished the program in 2016.
Why She Matters
Chang has worked on more than 400 investigations, most of them involving arson and explosives. According to ATF, she is the first Asian American woman to become a special agent-certified fire investigator and a member of its National Response Team, which can respond anywhere in the United States within 24 hours. She got there by pushing hard for opportunities, from ATF’s student programs to an internship at ATF’s Sacramento office while she earned a graduate degree in forensic science. Her path shows there is more than one road into fire investigation, even one that starts with a psychology degree.
