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Comms Coach Podcast
Welcome to Comms Coach, the podcast that delves deep into the world of training and quality assurance for 9-1-1. Your host, Lori Henricksen, is a veteran in the field with more than 30 years experience as a dispatcher, trainer and high school teacher who started one of the country's first 9-1-1 Dispatch programs for High School students in Las Vegas, Nevada. In each episode, a lineup of expert guests dive into the critical aspects of emergency communications training, quality assurance and improvement. They share valuable insights, techniques, and best practices to help today's trainers and the next generation of unsung heroes. So whether you're an experienced dispatcher, leader, trainer or simply curious about how to set up and run training or QA programs in your center or school, get ready to embark on a journey of knowledge, growth, and inspiration. This is Comms Coach, building the strength behind every call.
Comms Coach Podcast
Season 1 Episode 3 Kris Nichols - The CTO
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What does it actually mean to be a great CTO—and why does it matter so much more than most people realize? In this episode, host Lori Henricksen sits down with Kris Nichols, a seasoned Communications Training Officer with New River Valley 911 Authority, for an honest, practical conversation about what it takes to train the next generation of 911 dispatchers and build comm centers worth being proud of.
Kris didn't set out to work in emergency telecommunications—but once she found it, she found her calling. She shares how that unexpected path led her to discover a passion not just for dispatching, but for training, and what it really means to be the person who guides new hires into one of the most demanding jobs there is. Spoiler: it's a lot more than grading calls. She breaks down the CTO role as it should be understood—mentoring, coaching, counseling, and modeling professionalism every single shift.
The conversation gets into the practical stuff, too: how to design training programs that actually work for different kinds of learners, why having trainees build their own "dispatch bibles" and study resources leads to better retention, and the case for rotating trainees across trainers and shifts so they graduate confident and well-rounded—not just checked off a list. Kris also doesn't shy away from the harder conversations, like how to handle trainee mistakes when the stakes are life and death, and why that accountability matters.
She's equally candid about the systemic gaps: the lack of national and statewide standardization in 911 and CTO training, the need for real promotion pathways and compensation that reflect the weight of the role, and how sharing homegrown tools—like her detailed ANI/ALI resource—can raise the bar for entire centers.
If you're a CTO, trainer, supervisor, or dispatcher who wants to strengthen your training program and take the professionalism of your center seriously, this episode delivers the kind of real-world insight you can put to work right away.
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