In honor of Black History Month, News 12 is shining a light on Chief Cherry Bailey - a woman who's served our city's sanitation department for over 18 years.

Cherry Bailey, a Brooklyn native, started off her career as a sanitation worker back in 2005. Since then, she's moved up the ranks from supervisor to superintendent, and now as the head of division of safety and training for the DSNY.

Bailey is making history as the first Black woman to be a three-star chief and the second woman to achieve that rank in the history of the department.

She will now oversee the entire department's safety and training. She says she hopes to inspire more people knowing if she did it, they can too.