What does it actually take to go from student to supervisor in the 9-1-1 industry? In this episode of the CommsCoach Podcast, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Lily Uranga, a fire communications supervisor whose career she has watched unfold since Lily was a student in the emergency telecommunications program at Veterans Tribute Career and Technical Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Lily's path into dispatch was not a straight line. She spent time in the hospitality industry before returning to 9-1-1 nearly a decade ago, starting as a frontline communication specialist, advancing to shift supervisor, and now serving as a fire communications supervisor. Her story is a case study in what it looks like to prepare for opportunities before they open, rather than waiting for them to arrive.

In this conversation, Lily and Lori talk through:

• Why professional development has to start long before a promotion is available, including Lily's decision to finish her bachelor's degree even though it is not required for her current role
• How attending her first NENA Navigator conference in 2018 reshaped her understanding of how different 9-1-1 centers operate, and why "if you've seen one comm center, you've seen one comm center"
• What it meant to return to her old classroom as a volunteer instructor and mentor for the next generation of telecommunicators
• The difference between the skills that make someone a strong call taker and the skills that make someone a strong supervisor
• Why reputation and professionalism start on day one of a career, not the day an interview is scheduled
• Her honest answer to the question every aspiring supervisor asks: how do you know when you are ready?

This episode is for telecommunicators, CTOs, and supervisors who are thinking about what comes next in their own careers, and for center leadership looking for language to support the next generation of leaders coming up through the ranks.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the CommsCoach Podcast and share it with a colleague. To suggest a topic or be a guest on an upcoming episode, email Lori at [email protected] or [email protected].

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In this episode of the CommsCoach Podcast, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Lee Ann Magoski, Director of Emergency Communications for Monterey County, to discuss how professional organizations help 9-1-1 dispatchers, telecommunicators, supervisors, trainers, and ECC leaders grow their careers and strengthen the emergency communications profession.

Lee Ann shares why organizations like NENA, APCO, and other public safety associations are valuable for dispatch professionals at every stage of their career. From training opportunities and standards development to legislative advocacy, technology updates, networking, scholarships, certifications, and access to public safety partners, professional membership can help telecommunicators stay informed, connected, and prepared for what’s next.

Lori and Lee Ann also talk about the power of networking beyond your own dispatch center. Whether you work in a small PSAP, large emergency communications center, law enforcement dispatch center, fire communications center, or 9-1-1 training program, professional organizations give dispatchers a way to share ideas, find support, learn best practices, and bring meaningful improvements back to their agencies.

This conversation also explores practical ways supervisors and ECC leaders can encourage their teams to get involved, including group memberships, training access, webinars, scholarships, volunteer opportunities, and chapter participation. Lee Ann emphasizes that every telecommunicator has the ability to make a difference, whether they are brand new to the profession or already leading at the local, state, or national level.

If you are a 9-1-1 dispatcher, telecommunicator, CTO, trainer, supervisor, manager, director, educator, or public safety professional looking to grow your network, strengthen your career, and better understand the value of professional organizations in emergency communications, this episode is for you.

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Most people think they understand 911. They know someone picks up. What they don't know is everything that happens in the seconds after—and that gap, it turns out, costs more than anyone realizes. In this special episode recorded in honor of 911 Education Month, host Lori Henricksen brings together three members of the GovWorks education team—Chief of Public Safety Engagement Tipi Brookins, Director of 911 Education Halcyon Frank, and Manager of Applied 911 Education Michael Mollo—for a panel conversation about why education might be the single most powerful and most underestimated tool in emergency communications.

Tipi says it best: if the public truly understood what telecommunicators do—the split-second decisions, the technical juggling, the weight of being the lifeline between a caller in crisis and a responder heading toward danger—they wouldn't just be less frustrated when they're asked a lot of questions. They'd be in awe. Closing that gap isn't just good community relations. It makes every call go better.

But this episode goes well beyond public awareness. Lori and her guests get into what real professional development looks like for telecommunicators, why the training that actually sticks is never just a checklist, and what happens to good people when agencies stop investing in them after they clear training. The workforce crisis in 911 isn't going to be solved by recruiting alone—and this panel makes a compelling case for what it actually takes to build a profession people choose to stay in.

Each panelist brings a moment that makes it personal. Tipi's memory of guiding a mother through infant CPR on an Amtrak train on what may have been her very first solo call. Halcyon's description of watching the lightbulb turn on for a dispatcher in training. Michael's reminder that every call carries real consequences—for the person taking it and the responders heading out because of it.

The episode ends with a challenge: do something. One post. One community event. One honest conversation with your team. Because as Tipi puts it, education is the liability insurance you can't buy.

If you work in 911—or you care about the people who do—this one is worth your full attention.

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What if you could hand a high schooler a headset, put them in a simulated 911 center, and watch the moment they realize this job is nothing like they imagined? In this episode, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Teresa Burgamy—IT manager at Fresno County Sheriff's, lead dispatch instructor at Fresno City College Police Academy, and the woman behind one of the most innovative 911 outreach programs in the country—to talk about what it actually looks like to recruit the next generation before they even graduate.

Teresa's path into emergency communications started at twelve years old through an explorer program in a small California town, and she's spent the decades since finding every possible way to bring others into the profession she loves. Her latest project might be her most creative yet: partnering with Fresno County's Regional Occupational Program to bring a fully retrofitted mobile dispatch trailer—complete with ten computers, ambient lighting, and AI-powered simulation calls—directly to high school students who didn't even know 911 dispatching was a career option.

The results are exactly what you'd hope for. Students walk in nervous, hands shaking, not sure what to expect. A few calls in, they're competing with each other for the highest score, calling out the questions their classmates missed, and having the kind of "aha moments" that stick for life—like the student who realized too late that asking "do you have a weapon?" and "is there a weapon?" are not the same question.

Lori and Teresa dig into why simulation-based learning works when lectures don't, how AI removes the bias and coaching that human role-players unintentionally provide, and why reaching students at this age doesn't just fill a pipeline—it educates their families, their teachers, and their entire communities about what dispatchers actually do. They also get practical about how any agency, regardless of size or budget, can start building these relationships with local schools—from guest speaking at a career day to partnering with existing ROTC or vocational programs.

If your center is struggling with recruitment and you're looking for a strategy that builds genuine passion for the profession before candidates ever walk through your door, this episode is the conversation you need to hear.

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Pizza parties and themed dress-up days aren't a wellness program. And in this episode, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Tipi Brookins—Chief of Public Safety Engagement at GovWorks and former Chief of Staff at DC 911—to talk about what real wellness actually looks like in a 911 center, and why getting it right is the difference between a center that retains people and one that slowly burns through them.

Tipi's relationship with 911 started before she ever worked in it. She called for her seriously ill father and experienced firsthand what it means to need that voice on the other end of the line. What followed was a career that took her through Amtrak Police, Montgomery County, the Metropolitan Police Department, and eventually to the highest levels of emergency communications leadership—with plenty of hard lessons along the way. She opens up about navigating toxic culture, carrying grief on the job, the slow drift of "mentally quitting," and what it felt like to lose an officer on her shift. These aren't stories she tells for effect. They're the experiences that shaped everything she now believes about how comm centers should treat their people.

She and Lori dig into what trust, psychological safety, and emotional intelligence actually look like on the floor—not in a leadership seminar, but in the everyday moments that set the tone for an entire center. A check-in at the start of a shift. Feedback delivered with fairness and context. QA that builds confidence instead of quietly eroding it. Recognition that doesn't wait for Telecommunicator Week. The presence of a supervisor who's actually visible and engaged. None of it is complicated. None of it requires a budget line item. And all of it matters more than most leaders realize.

For centers dealing with staffing shortages, burnout, and turnover—which is most of them—Tipi offers something more useful than inspiration: she offers a realistic roadmap. What to prioritize when resources are thin, where culture breaks down without anyone noticing, and why "take care of your people and they will take care of you" isn't a feel-good slogan—it's a retention strategy.

If you lead a comm center, supervise a team, or work the floor and wonder why things feel the way they do, this episode will give you language for what you're experiencing and a place to start changing it.

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Most 911 centers never think about branding. Whitney Moore thinks that's a mistake—and this episode might just change your mind too. Host Lori Henricksen sits down with the Communications Manager at Northwest Emergency Communications Center in Texas for a conversation about what happens when a dispatch center decides to take its identity seriously.

Whitney's center wasn't always what it is today. It started as a small single-agency PSAP, and somewhere along the way her team made a decision: they were going to build something people were proud to be part of. That meant more than a new logo. It meant figuring out who they were, what they stood for, and how to show that to the people inside the center and the community on the other side of every call.

The how is what makes this episode worth your time. Whitney partnered with a student-led PR agency out of TCU to develop a modern visual identity and months of social media content. She added a headset to the patch and created challenge coins—small moves that turned out to mean a lot on the floor. She built a brand neutral enough to represent multiple partner agencies without making anyone feel like an afterthought. And she leaned into something most centers wouldn't dare try: radical transparency, publishing QA metrics, satisfaction survey results, and performance data publicly, even when the numbers weren't pretty.

She and Lori talk about why all of this matters beyond aesthetics. A strong brand attracts the next generation of telecommunicators. A consistent social media presence lets a center shape its own narrative instead of leaving it to whoever's complaining online. And when dispatchers see themselves reflected in something they're genuinely proud of, it shows up in morale, retention, and the way they carry themselves on the job.

If you lead a comm center and you've never thought about branding as a leadership tool—this episode is your starting point.

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What if the 911 dispatcher who takes your call tomorrow started learning the job in high school? In this episode, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Eric Guerrero—a professional 911 dispatcher and former student in one of the nation's first high school dispatch programs—to talk about what happens when you give young people a real look at emergency communications before they ever apply for the job.

Eric didn't set out to be a dispatcher. He wanted to be a CSI. But something shifted when he walked into Lori's classroom at Veterans Tribute Career & Technical Academy, and the path he thought he was on quietly gave way to the one he was actually meant for. He shares how that program gave him more than just technical skills—stress management, multitasking, call-taking, radio communications—it gave him an honest picture of what the job really demands, emotionally and mentally, before he was ever sitting in a real comm center with lives on the line.

Lori and Eric dig into what makes these programs work: the sit-alongs, the guest speakers, the partnerships with local agencies, and the culture of integrity and mutual respect for every public safety role that gets woven into students from day one. They also make the case that early exposure to 911 careers doesn't just benefit students—it benefits agencies. When a candidate walks in already understanding the weight of the work, recruitment gets smarter, training gets faster, and retention gets better.

Because the flip side is just as valuable: some students go through a program like this and realize public safety isn't for them. And that's a discovery worth making in a classroom, not six months into agency training.

If you run a comm center, lead a training program, or work in education and you've ever wondered how to build a stronger pipeline into the profession—this episode is the blueprint you've been looking for.

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Someone told Jessica Lindley she couldn't be a 911 dispatcher. She's been proving them wrong ever since. In this episode, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Jessica—a working dispatcher and a professional with a disability—for a conversation that challenges just about every assumption the 911 industry still carries about who belongs behind the headset.

Jessica's connection to emergency communications started long before she ever applied for the job. At nine years old, she made a 911 call that changed her life—and planted a seed that never left. When a high school counselor later told her a dispatch career wasn't realistic for someone like her, she didn't walk away. She found a way in, and she's been building a case for inclusion ever since.

This episode gets into the real, practical side of what it looks like to make a comm center accessible—not in theory, but on the floor. Headsets instead of handsets. Typing instead of handwriting when CAD goes down. Alternative radio controls. Low lockers, accessible shelves, verbal CPR certification. Jessica walks through the accommodations that made the difference for her, most of which cost little to nothing and benefit the entire team. She and Lori also dig into where most agencies are still getting it wrong—job descriptions written to exclude without realizing it, recruiting processes that never reach candidates with disabilities, and a lack of mentorship or representation that makes the career feel out of reach before anyone even applies.

But the conversation goes beyond access. It gets at something deeper: the unique value that dispatchers with disabilities bring to the calls no one else quite knows how to handle—elderly callers, disabled callers, people who feel invisible until someone on the other end of the line actually gets it.

If you hire, train, or lead people in a 911 center, this episode will make you rethink what an ideal candidate looks like—and why the most resilient, compassionate centers are the ones that stop assuming limitations and start asking what people can do.

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What does it actually cost a 911 center when the culture is toxic—and who's responsible for fixing it? In this episode, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Steve Sutton, a public safety professional with over 30 years across fire, EMS, corrections, and 911 communications, for a candid conversation about what it takes to build a comm center where people actually want to show up.

Steve and Lori don't sugarcoat the reality. Chronic understaffing, mandatory overtime, cliques that make new hires feel like outsiders, and a job where you pour everything into calls and almost never hear how they turned out—it's a recipe for burnout, turnover, and a culture that slowly poisons itself. They've both seen it. And they've both seen what happens when leadership decides to do something different.

The heart of this episode is a principle Steve lives by: what a leader does in moderation, staff will do in excess. That cuts both ways. Leaders who complain, check out, or play favorites give their teams permission to do the same. But leaders who model positivity, recognize their people consistently—not just during Telecommunicator Week—and invite everyone to the table? They build something that lasts.

Steve gets practical about what that actually looks like: clear communication, genuine recognition (handwritten notes, public shoutouts, small gestures that signal someone was seen), encouraging certifications and professional growth, and paying close attention to the first 60 to 90 days when new hires are quietly deciding whether they're going to stay or go. That window matters more than most leaders realize.

The payoff for getting this right isn't just a nicer place to work. It shows up in productivity, attendance, recruitment, retention, and the kind of teamwork that holds together when the calls get hard and the shift runs long.

If you lead a comm center—or you're trying to change the culture of one from inside—this episode is the conversation you didn't know you needed.

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What if the secret to better 911 training didn't require a bigger budget—just a little more creativity and a genuine commitment to doing the job well? In this episode, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Kimberly Gouvea, retired LVMPD dispatcher and trainer with 20 years on the floor, for a conversation packed with practical, adaptable ideas that any comm center can start using right away.

Kim has spent her career thinking about how people learn—and more importantly, how to reach the ones who don't learn the way a standard training program assumes they will. She and Lori dig into why understanding the difference between visual, auditory, and hands-on learners isn't just a nice-to-have, it's the difference between a trainee who thrives and one who washes out. And they make the case that teaching the "why" behind codes, protocols, and policies doesn't slow training down—it builds the kind of decision-making that holds up when things get complicated on a real call.

The episode is full of training ideas you might not have tried: turning code memorization into rhymes and games, using typing competitions to build speed, having trainees draw maps from memory and follow pursuits on paper, even bringing flashcards and location-based games home so family members become part of the learning process. It sounds unconventional—and it works.

Kim also makes a passionate case for ride-alongs and cross-training with field units. When dispatchers take the same patrol, K-9, and air unit classes designed for officers, something shifts. They stop just processing calls and start truly understanding what's happening on the other end of that radio. Better anticipation. Sharper awareness. Fewer gaps between the console and the street.

They don't sidestep the hard realities either—staffing shortages, time pressure, burnout, and the temptation to treat training as something to get through rather than invest in. Kim's argument is straightforward: agencies that prioritize creative, continuous training see it come back in retention, morale, and performance. The ones that don't eventually pay a different kind of price.

If you're looking for fresh ideas to bring back to your training program—and proof that most of them don't cost a thing—this episode delivers.

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