Lieutenant Kim Doran

Lieutenant Kim Doran, a 20-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department, spent much of the summer of 2011 assisting a fellow officer who was terminally ill with cancer, supporting not only the officer but also his young family. Just one month later, in August 2011, Kim learned that she herself had stage four colon cancer that had spread to other organs, including her stomach and liver. This began Kim’s long struggle with the disease, which continues even today. During this time her outreach to and support of fellow officers has never wavered, and she has continued her duties as a supervising patrol officer.

“She’s touched so many lives,” said Lieutenant Colonel Erin Schaible. “Even in her life-threatening situation she’s reached out to so many people. She cares about the officers she’s supervising, and she cares about her fellow officers.”

As Kim began to grapple with her illness, she resolved to maintain a positive outlook despite the difficult road ahead and uncertain outlook. “It would have been easy to get depressed, and I started to initially. But I realized I could fall into a hole I might not be able to get out of.”

Despite undergoing at least eight rounds of chemotherapy and three grueling surgeries, Kim also has been an anchor for fellow officers experiencing serious illnesses, especially those with cancer, as well as officers deployed in the military. During this time, she also was chosen by 1,400 fellow officers to represent them on the police department’s Employee Advisory Council. In addition, Kim has kept up her excellent work as a supervisor in the patrol division. “I had to be on light duty at times, but if I could help in any way I went into work,” Kim recalled. “There were days I wasn’t good and I would go home, but I would come back the next day.”

Her determination to keep up with both her formal and voluntary responsibilities is just her way of giving back. “I never realize how much goodness there was in this department until I needed their help,” she said. “Taking care of others is how I take care of myself.”

Kim’s exceptional courage and selfless dedication to her position and to colleagues during her health crisis are simply Kim being Kim, according to Lieutenant Colonel Schaible. “She’s never given up. She’s never stopped moving forward. I can’t say enough about how caring she is.”