Appointed in January 2016 as director of the Memphis Fire Department, Sweat is one of only a handful of women in the country leading a metropolitan fire department. Her career began in 1992 as a firefighter/EMT and she worked her way through the ranks of the department, earning promotions to driver (1995), fire lieutenant (1998), battalion chief (2001), and division chief (2008). Sweat is a graduate of Freed-Hardeman University, where she also played basketball. She earned a master’s degree in strategic leadership from the University of Memphis in 2013.