Thriving in a mail-dominated world

Molly Shore

Neither rain, sleet, snow nor being female could keep former Burbank

resident Rosemarie Fernandez from becoming just the second female

postmaster in San Francisco’s 155-year history.

Now, Fernandez has been named by San Francisco’s Business Times as

one of the top 100 influential women in business in the Bay Area.

The John Burroughs High School graduate has been employed with the

U.S. Postal Service for 25 years -- the last three as San Francisco

postmaster. She has worked her way up through management positions,

even while helping raise husband Kim’s two daughters.

“What I enjoy about [the postal service] is that it promotes

women, Fernandez said. “It focuses on moving women and minorities

into executive positions.”

Fernandez, 44, oversees the operation of 40 stations and branches

with a workforce of 2,400 employees and delivery of more than three

million pieces of mail daily to San Francisco residents and

businesses.

“What’s real important is finding the balance between family and

work, and the balance can be found,” Fernandez said. “It’s just a

matter of how you juggle to have success on both sides.”

San Francisco postal service District Manager Scott Tucker, who is

responsible for the area from Sunnyvale to the Oregon border, said

that when he had to fill the postmaster position, he was looking for

a person who could build a positive team, a person who was a good

mentor and an individual who would work well within his leadership

group.

“Fernandez was a perfect fit who could offer the right kind of

skills my team and I looked for,” Tucker said.

After graduating from high school in 1978, Fernandez went to work

as a clerk at the Postal Service’s Van Nuys processing center while

attending college.

Her mother, Burbank resident Gloria Calabrese, said it was hard at

first for Fernandez when she started in the mail room. But she but

soon worked her way up, and eventually became postmaster in Upland.