Season 3 Episode 2: Teresa Burgamy

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.

Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/comms-coach-podcast/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:11

This is CommsCoach, the podcast that delves deep into the world of 911 emergency communications. Your host, Lori Hendrickson, served more than 20 years as a call taker, dispatcher, and trainer, and started one of the first 911 vocational training programs in Las Vegas. And now, your host of Comms Coach, Lori Hendrickson.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Comms Coach Podcast. I'm your host, Lori Henrickson, and today's conversation is one I'm especially excited about because it's focused on the future of our profession. As we recognize April as 911 Education Month, we often think about educating the public on when to call 911. But there's another critical piece of that conversation, and that's helping the next generation understand who we are, what we do, and how they can be part of it. Today I'm joined by someone who is doing just that in a very creative and impactful way. Teresa Bergamy, Information Technology Manager at Fresno County Sheriff's Office, is working with the Fresno County, California School District to work directly with students using simulations to teach them about emergency telecommunications. This approach not only builds awareness, it creates real engagement and gives students a hands-on understanding of what it means to be a 911 professional. If you're interested in education, recruitment, or innovative ways to connect with your community, this episode is for you. So hello, Teresa. And can you share a little bit about your background and your role within Fresno County Dispatch?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Absolutely. Hi, Lori, and thank you for having me. So I like to say my name's Teresa Rugamy. I started with public safety actually at the age of 12 as an explorer in the Explorer program in my little hometown of Dainuba, California. And I didn't want to be an officer. And through that program is what when I learned dispatching and found my path. It's like this is perfect. I could be a dispatcher. I found that little niche for me, right? So I started dispatching right out of high school with Dainuba Police Department. From there I moved to Selma Police, where I met my husband. So was there for two years. So I ended up leaving to uh Fresno County Sheriff right after that, where I've been uh here at the county for 23 years now. Uh so throughout my career as a dispatcher, I was uh a lead instructor, I was uh CTO, a supervisor, and joined the Fresno City College Police Academy, where now I'm the lead instructor for the dispatch and the CTO Academy, and which I love. I love teaching. Now, because of my background, later on I transferred to the IT unit. I love technology, and I could blend dispatch with technology and teaching. I mean, everything just kind of falling into place, right? Now, my role with Fresno Schools, it was one of those things where path just leads you in the right direction, right? I love teaching. We know there's a gap in dispatch. I've never worked for an agency that has a uh full dispatch center, like has a full staffing, right? There's always something out there. We're always short. So I worked a lot of overtime during my years. Our ROP program, Regional Occupational Program, they learned about the shortage in the dispatch center. And actually, they were the ones that approached me and said, Hey, we know that dispatch centers are extremely short. So what can we do to help? They asked that perfect question, what can we do to help? So, of course, the idea started flowing. It's like, well, why don't we get them while they're young? They're in high school, they're eager to learn, they want a job, you know, and they don't know what dispatch is all about, right? So in collaboration with them, uh, we started joining schools, going out there, introducing ourselves, learning on what we do. And we came up with the with the curriculum along with post. They're like, Yeah, absolutely. We'll we'll join you, we'll give you guys a sort or give the students a certificate. Not replacing post, but it's giving them a certificate and incentive uh to come to the academy right after high school. And and let's let's let's get them out there, right? So that's kind of my background, my little story with uh the Fresno schools and how we got started here.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

That's awesome. And that's actually how I met you is through through working with Fresno County Schools. And and can you explain to the audience a little bit about the creative thing actually that Fresno Schools has been doing?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, so the Fresno Schools, uh the ROP and uh coordinators, which was Mike and and Alex, they started going and visiting all the comp centers, right? Seeing how dark the the comp centers are because everybody likes the lights off. So they asked schools, hey, what if we recreate this and have our students simulate a dispatch center? So we're like, yeah, that would be fantastic. So they went above and beyond, purchased an actual trailer, retrofit it to be a kind of a mobile command post, is the way I would describe it. It has ambient light in there, it has 10 computers. So from there, we started thinking, well, what are we gonna put in there? I mean, how are we going to teach the students, right, to take the call? Fantastic. We have a computer with maybe pretend call for service, but now what? Do we roleplay it? And that's when we started exploring the idea of uh leveraging artificial intelligence, AI, right? How what products are out there? What's out there that would help us do simulation calls? And that's where we met. Absolutely. Yep. It was awesome the way the simulation calls, the way you guys did your program. And we incorporated it into our trailer, and now we have our students go in there and actually take calls for service, and it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Well, and when I first saw the the pictures and the videos of the trailer, I was, well, you know, I was like floored because it's the coolest looking thing that I've ever seen. But especially as a high school student, I know even in my dispatch lab at the high school, a lot of students when they'd come to the school, they would really have no idea about dispatch and weren't that interested until they actually walked by and saw the lab. And so I can't imagine students actually seeing that cool trailer and walking inside and and seeing how cool it looks. So they have fun, that's for sure. Yeah. So why do you think students and even adults commonly misunderstand, or what do you think they misunderstand about the profession?

SPEAKER_00 6:45

I think the job as a whole, they just don't know. They they know they call 911. They know that there's somebody on the other line uh answering the 911 call. But I don't think adults or or or students understand that there's much more with just than just saying 911 state your emergency. You know, they don't understand that it's a multitasking career. Uh, you're entering the call for service. You're if you're solo dispatcher, you're dispatching at the same time, you're looking at different databases to to find resources for your officers, right? And I I just believe that it's the entire as a holistic, what is the job that people um don't understand or the mis miscommunication of being a dispatcher. It's not just a regular call center per se.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Exactly. And uh I I really do do feel that way because I think that a lot of times they think it's just somebody talking on the radio or somebody making a phone call until they really get into the job and start learning all of the different facets of this and all of the different skills and competencies that there are, people really have no idea. And I think that's that's another really cool reason why it's important to educate this younger audience because not only are you educating them, but when you get into a high school age, you're educating that student themselves, they're you're educating their families, their friends, and even the other educators or the other teachers at the schools, and then again, their families and their friends. So it kind of just snowballs. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with that. So when we talk about using simulations as a learning tool, I want you to walk us through what that looks like. So the first question I would ask is how do students typically respond to simulated calls or scenarios?

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So they take it very seriously. Uh when we walk them in there and they sit down, you could see that they're nervous, that their hands are shaking a little bit. Um, they're having trouble logging on. So that's that's how you could tell that they're a little bit nervous. They don't know what to expect. We we talk to them about, you know, how to do this and um that they're gonna get different calls for service. And prior to that, they already had a little bit of a lecture from from their instructors or from us that we've gone in there and talked to them, teaching the you know, the five W's, the who, what were, why wins, um, all that good stuff. So once they go in there and they sit down and and they get those jitters out and they take one or two calls, because we start start them off softly, you know, we really basic calls, a little dark uh noise complaint or something like that. And then we elevate it a little bit more and uh do maybe a little disturbance. And after a while, they start competing with each other. And that is so fun to watch them because we go, we give them this call and then we walk them through that okay, what could you have done better? Who caught the license plate? Who said who asked this question? So by the time they go through like five or six or seven simulations, now they're competing with each other for the highest score, or hey, I asked that, but you didn't. So it it becomes fun and they're learning in the process.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Oh, absolutely. And I know, I mean, even dispatchers are highly competitive. Everyone wants to be the best, but I know from working with high school students, it's the same thing. So they love competition and every single student wants to be the best. Um, so I can see that, especially in that that trailer atmosphere, or even at the college, when they're close together and they're working together, they all want to be the top student and they wanna, they, they want to say that they were the one that got the license plate first, or they were the one who who, you know, calmed that person the most. So what makes simulation more impactful than traditional teaching methods?

SPEAKER_00 10:29

That's an excellent question. Because in today's day and age, the term death by PowerPoint has never true. Our our lectures just did not work. When I sit there and lecture, I could see their faces are are a little bit blank stares, you know, like, okay, now what? So I quit, like our students are very kinesthetic tactile, right? They like to do. Right. So before AI simulation and all that good stuff, role playing was our best tool. And you're only as good as your role player. So if your role player, for example, for us in the academy, our role players had no experience either about how being a dispatcher is all about. So their role playing wasn't as great. And then you couldn't add the features of a gunshot in the background or people yelling in the background. So those active listening skills, you you can't teach them in a regular lecture environment. With simulation, right? You add the background noises. You add that person screaming or make them talk really soft. And now you start to develop not only their multitasking, but their active listening skills. What did you hear in that background that should be in that call for service?

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Absolutely. I agree. Well, and one thing I noticed too is when you are working with simulations versus, you know, one person's a call taker and one person's a dispatcher. I know a lot of times I would see students and even trainees, you know, even in agencies, that your role player, you know, they were role playing, trying to do their best. And then they would kind of coach the the call taker along because the call taker would even say, What do I ask next? Or the the role player would say, Did you ask my name yet? You know, so so AI is not gonna prompt you. AI is not gonna do that. It's unbiased and it's just gonna be uh, you know, it's gonna be that that caller or or whatnot. So, and I do also think that, like you said, death by PowerPoint and and lectures and all that, you can learn the knowledge and we need to learn that knowledge. But dispatch is so multitasking and so hands-on that we need to teach that hands-on and we need to practice, and we need to demonstrate that knowledge by taking those phone calls. And yeah, and I think that you can learn better too when you when you demonstrate your abilities versus just listening and taking down notes. So um, and I know and we've talked a little bit about some of the experiences that you've had, but are there any moments or reactions from students that really stood out to you that you'd like to share with our audience?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Absolutely. So I know I know I've shared with you this one, uh, the aha moment. Oh, yeah. We have a nice little video of it, and I love to show it to anybody who would listen to it, but we're where one of our students, and I gave that same call to all of our students. I think I had 15 students that day, and I made sure that every single one of them had that same call. And it was a person reporting a disturbance inside their house. And as the call taker is asking the question, it's more of a home invasion than an actual disturbance inside the house, right? So, like, oh, well, they come to my house and and they attacked me. So we got into a fight. Okay, well, it's a home invasion. But then she keeps asking the right questions. She asks, Was there any weapons? And the person keeps saying, No, there's no weapons. She asks, Do you need an ambulance? Correct questions, everything, right? And then finally, the the artificial intelligence, the AI says, uh, okay, well, the deputies are here or the officers are here. She goes, Okay, I'm I'm gonna go ahead and let you build and talk to them. And just before he hangs up, he says, Oh, I'm gonna go ahead and put my knife away. And right there, everybody uh had that aha moment that if you don't ask that right question of the citizen, is there any weapons versus do you have any weapons that Anthony carries? So aha moments are the fun are fantastic, just absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Well, and I think that that moment, that that particular student will never, ever, ever in their entire life, if they go into this career, ever not ask that question. And I think actually the whole class will it will be the same experience for.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

100%.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

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SPEAKER_01 15:58

So, next, do you see this kind of exposure influencing students' interest in public safety careers? And how can this help address recruitment challenges in 911?

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Oh, absolutely. I sure do. So many students want to be in law enforcement, but they don't know what's available. They don't know that that law enforcement is beyond what they see on TV. It's it's more than a detective, eye bureau, CSI. You know, there's it takes it takes a village to move law enforcement. So this exposure, when we go out there, we talk, yes, about dispatch, but we also talk about the other career paths that are here. We have a records department, right, who has to be here 24-7 with warrants and entering records into the system. And we have our accountants, our payroll specialists, our CSOs, our program techs. So what we would love uh for these students is to learn that there is more out there that they could start with. Yes, if they don't want to be dispatchers, that's fine. You know, but how about get your foot in the door with an agency instead of having to wait until they're 21 years old and you know, looking for from job to job to job when they could actually start as 18-year-olds right out of high school, as records, as dispatch, as a CSO, you know, and and start forming your career path. What do you want to be when you grow up, right? And you don't have to pick one or the other, but you could get your career path going. That's how I started. That's uh I started as a dispatcher and I'm in IT right now, and that was my passion. And, you know, now I'm teaching and I love it. I love putting all my worlds together to help other people get there.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Well, and that's what's cool, especially about you being such a mentor to these students, because you've done so many different parts in this career or many many facets of this career, so they can actually learn from you and see that I shouldn't say that there's more than call taking, but there's so many different aspects to what you can do and can do in your future. And they're all different and they're all exciting.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

And I tell them, you know, like if if you want to be a dispatcher, dispatcher is a fantastic career. You could promote, you could be a training officer, you could be a supervisor, you could be a manager, be out there in the tactical uh with a tactical team. Uh so dispatching is an amazing career. If if that's where you want to be and that's where you want to grow, you could absolutely grow within the dispatch center.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Oh, absolutely. And I always tell people I think that dispatching and working the radio is the best um job in the entire world. Absolutely. If I could work the radio every single moment, still I would do that. I would totally do that because yeah, it's it's awesome. It's always fun. Oh, yeah. That's the best word. I mean, maybe not if you're a patrol sergeant, but when you when you're working the radio as a dispatcher, you love the excitement and you love the challenge and rising to the challenge. And that's what I think too about exposing the students to this is I will say that some of my most successful students that are out there as adults and killing it as supervisors and directors and all that now, they didn't start my school enrolled in the 911 program or even thinking of the 911 program. They were students that were exposed to it once they were there. They were already set to do law enforcement or criminal justice or some other uh facet of public safety. And then once they saw the lab and they started learning about the program and became curious and then entered and then, you know, learned about it, that's where they developed the passion for it. And I think if they wouldn't have been exposed to the emergency telecommunications program, they wouldn't, they wouldn't be doing what they are today because they wouldn't have even known about it.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Knowledge is power.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Mm-hmm. And then I think it goes two ways too. I think another great thing about exposing students is they may learn that maybe this isn't for them. And that's that's good too, because then they're not gonna, they're not gonna, I shouldn't say, waste the time of an agency, but they're not gonna try to go to an agency into a career that they're not ready for, that they don't have a passion for. And they can go into something they love. And they learn so many things from a program like this that maybe they're gonna learn something that's very useful, you know, out in the field or, you know, in nursing or in psychology, or there's so many different aspects and different things that they learn, you know, in a program like this that they they can find and and use to be successful out there.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

So any covenant knowledge is great knowledge.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Exactly. But we want them to be in 911. So they're very yes, yes, yes. And if they do, hopefully they'll be very successful. So for agencies listening, what are some simple ways that they could start doing something similar in their communities?

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Start the conversations. I'm starting with conversations with your local school districts, find out, you know, if you could talk to the principal of that school, see, see if they're willing to support you. Ask the questions. What do you have? Do you have an ROTC program, a vocational program? Maybe you could interject yourself in one of those, like we did. Our ROP program is actually geared more towards uh criminology, more law enforcement, officers on the street side. So we're like, hey, well, how about putting dispatch in there, right? Because that's where the call starts. So for me, is is asking the question, finding your local school, talking to the superintendent, talking to um the principal. And I would say above all, uh your command staff, right? Because you need their support. So you're your supervisors, your sergeants, your lieutenants. It's like, hey, I have an idea. How about this?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Absolutely. And I think too, it's even just you don't, I mean, granted, it would be nice to start a program in a school and to start a full-blown, you know, having the having what you guys have at Fresno schools or, you know, starting a specific program at one school, but just getting in there to begin with, just being a guest speaker, just getting a hold of the School, you know, for a career day and say, hey, can we come in and and be a guest speaker for a criminal justice class? Or most high schools have career days, and why not set a booth up for your agency at a career day and and get the conversation started there? But I think the more exposure. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Do you have the fairs, recruitments be part of it? If you have a recruitment team.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Absolutely. And one thing that I've I've noticed too is when centers get involved with schools, not only is it beneficial for the school, but it's really beneficial for those specific um individuals that do the dispatchers and the call takers that go out to the schools. It kind of energizes you. And you could probably speak to this because you see that there is a new generation out there that's actually excited and thinks you're a rock star.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah. Yeah. You can see it in their faces. I mean, if if you look at some of the videos of the uh news that they've done, you could see the students are just staring at you like, what? And that's so amazing to grab their attention. And I absolutely love it when I finish either my lecture or my introduction and the questions. You know, questions. And some of them are questions, you know, totally valid from an 18-year-old, you know, like, oh, what's the pay? And uh was like, look, I am right there, right there with you. When I started working, I wanted my first thing I wanted to do with my pages was buy me a car. So and those are fun things, you know. It's like, it's it's yes, it's a job, it's a career, but have fun with it too. What are you gonna do with it? Right? Are you going to work towards this and help your parents? Are you gonna work towards this and buy yourself your first home? You know, you're 18, but there's there's so much potential. So much potential.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Absolutely. And the one thing that I noticed with students since 2020 is they've actually really been interested in the fact that for the most part, this career can offer retirement and offer them like a lifelong career that again, once they're at whatever age your your state has, you know, they can they can actually have a retirement and and have a second career or be be, I shouldn't say set for life, but have that paycheck or have have something that's gonna help them and their family for the rest of their lives. So with that being said, is there anything else that you'd like to share about the importance of educating the next generation?

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Who ideas? If you have them, throw them out there, go for it. This generation, like you said, they're they're eager to learn, they want to be out here, um, they're ready to work. So let's let's grab them. Let's let's feed into that. And um, whatever ideas you have out there, bring them out.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

I like that. And thank you. Because they really are. And and a lot of people, you know, they dismiss this generation, but they're exciting, um, they love their communities, they want to do the right things, and they're the next generation that are gonna do the right things for us. So let's embrace them, let's let's work with them, let's mentor them. And that's the thing, you and I could seriously talk about this for days. Because I think we both have a passion for, and we have done some presentations, and and this is an exciting topic because it's an important topic. So um, so with that, I say thank you so much for joining me today and for the incredible work that you're doing to educate and inspire the next generation of 911 professionals.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

You're welcome. Today's conversation is a great reminder that education doesn't just impact the public, it shapes the future of our workforce and our profession. By creating opportunities for students to engage, ask questions, and experience the role through simulations, we're building understanding, respect, and interest in a career that is critical to every community. In this episode, if it sparked ideas for you, I encourage you to think about how your center can connect with local schools and begin these relationships. And as we continue through 911 Education Month, let's remember that every conversation, every demonstration, and every outreach effort makes a difference. Thank you for listening to the Comms Coach Podcast. If you have ideas for future topics or would love to be a guest, feel free to reach out. Until next time, keep growing, keep leading, and keep answering the call.