Atlantic City Public Safety made history Thursday, as police and fire celebrated a total of 29 promotions.

A joint ceremony at the All Wars Memorial Building included a rise in ranks for six firefighters and 23 police officers, including the first Black woman to serve as deputy chief.

“I’m just proud as mayor that we’re able to do this,” Mayor Marty Small said of the promotions, that included three Class II officers moving to full-time.

“In addition, it was a historic day because (former) Capt. Alexus Zeilinger became the first African-American female deputy chief in the history of our great Police Department,” Small said.

Zeilinger is only the third woman to serve in the position, with now-retired Deputy Chief Bridget Pierce becoming the first nearly six years ago.  

“Since I took over as mayor, we’ve always preached diversity, and we’ve done that in a big way with our workforce,” Small said.

He noted that it now is a “majority minority department,” closely matching the makeup of the city.

The department also had an additional bright spot to the day with an appearance from Sgt. Christian Ivanov, who was critically wounded in a shooting when the city SWAT team breached a suspect’s door to serve a search warrant.

He was transferred from the hospital to rehab last month.

Ivanov was walking Thursday, when he got to see his brother and his best friend both get promoted.

Ivaylo Ivanov now joins his brother as a sergeant, while Valmir Loga was promoted to lieutenant.

“I had a brief moment with him yesterday, and he’s recovering every well, thank God,” Small said Friday of the wounded sergeant. “He looks good.”

Police Department Deputy Chiefs Captains Lieutenants Sergeants Full-Time Officers

Daniel Corcoran, Charles Stuart and Frank Timek to captain; John Sharkey, Gary Holmes, Brian Shapiro, Owen Ingenito, Christopher LoDico, Joseph Rauch, Robert Dessicino and Valmir Loga to lieutenant; Michael Gunnser, Kevin Perez, Danish Mohammad, Mark Flanigan, Eric Oneill-Knuttel, James Eckert, Ivaylo Ivanov and Wahab Malik to sergeant, and Nicolas Calambas, Xavier Hernandez and Shivanshu Khanna from Class II to full-time police officers.

Fire Department

Jeffrey Bird to deputy chief; Brian Adams and Sean Flynn to battalion chief; and Charles Reale, Jeffrey Schlundt and Ronald Laielli to captain.