Season 3 Episode 3: GovWorx Education Team

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.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

This is Comms Coach, the podcast that delves deep into the world of 911 emergency communications. Your host, Lori Henriksen, 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 Henrikson.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome back to the CommsCoach Podcast, the show dedicated to the professionals who answer when it matters most, our nation's emergency telecommunicators. I am so glad you're here today because this is not just any episode. This is a special episode and it deserves every bit of that word. April is 911 Education Month, and if you work in emergency communications, if you support this industry, or if you've ever picked up a phone and dialed 911, this month is for you. It's a time to recognize the extraordinary men and women who serve as the first of the first responders and to shine a light on something I believe with my whole heart. Education changes everything. Today I have the privilege of sitting down with some of the most dedicated people I know, members of our very own GovWorks education team, for a conversation about why education in emergency telecommunications isn't just important, it's essential. Essential for our 911 professionals, essential for our communities, and essential for the future of this entire profession. Let me introduce our incredible panelists. First, she brings a powerful combination of passion and perspective to everything she does in this space. Please welcome our chief of public safety engagement, Tippi Brookins. Next, a driving force behind how we think about and deliver education in the 911 world, our director of 911 education, Halcyon Frank, and joining us as well, someone who takes education out of the classroom and into real-world application every single day, our manager of applied 911 education, Michael Mollow. Together, we are going to dig into the why behind 911 education, why our telecommunicators need it, why our communities need it, and why investing in education is one of the most powerful things we can do for public safety. So let's get right into it. But before we do dive in, I'd love for each of you to share a little bit about your background, specifically in emergency telecommunications and in education. How did you get here and what drives your passion for this work?

SPEAKER_05 2:38

So for me, I will say that it started way back in high school. I had a bunch of friends that we all were determined to be in the law enforcement field. And so our path that we made, we all were going to become police officers. However, that didn't work out that way. When I left to go to a college in Richmond, Virginia, I went to Virginia Union University, where they actually had a police academy. That wasn't the direction that I actually wanted to go in when I started taking classes in police administration and learned about all the different things, such as 911. And so uh that helped me go in that direction. But just early on, really having the experience with 911 and and as far as you know how they assisted my family, I had a sick father. And what I will say is that um what drives my passion for this work is because I know that 911, a 911 is essential, and the people behind the work are real people, and that really, really drives my uh passion for the industry.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Awesome. Thank you, Tippi. Um, how's on?

SPEAKER_04 3:46

I got into it fully by accident. I needed a job, and the job description sounded like it would be interesting, um, and definitely walked in not even realizing what the position was until I walked into the room and was like, oh, this is this is dispatch. Okay. Uh now I understand a little better what we're doing. So from there, I just really kind of fell in love with it. So it took a little bit, it was a little tough at the beginning, but definitely definitely fell in love with it and all the things that come along with the position. Uh and it just kind of grew from there.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

So thank you and Michael.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Right. Well, I got started in it, uh, you know, I always wanted to be a police officer. See, I went to uh I got my associate's degree and then I decided to go a little bit further, and I got a bachelor's, and I went even more, and I got a master's degree, and that was my goal was to be a police officer. But uh I ultimately decided to stay in dispatching. You know, I I've met so many great people and I've learned so many different valuable things while I was a dispatcher.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Awesome. Well, I'm glad that you guys were able to um participate in this panel today, and I think we're gonna have a great discussion. So let's start with the big picture. April is 911 education month. For anyone who might not be familiar, what is it and why does it matter? Halcyon, do you have thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_04 5:12

Yeah, it really is just a kind of focus time that we can help educate people in the community, even field responders, kind of everybody in between on what 911 is and everything that goes along with it. I think one of the tough parts about 911 is a lot of people might never use it in their whole life, or if they do, you know, it's only once or twice. And unfortunately, when someone's calling into 911, it's not the most opportune time to educate them on 911. And so this helps us provide that education outside of that. So then if they do have to call, they have a better understanding, or if they think it's some type of work they'd like to go into, they have a better understanding of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Absolutely. So as I say, Tippi, in your experience, do you think the general public truly understands what happens when they call 911? And what are the biggest misconceptions that you've seen?

SPEAKER_05 6:03

Uh I'm gonna say that's a big no. The general public does not truly understand, and here's why. There are many shows out here that try to depict what actually happens at after a night or during a 911 call, but in reality it's a close try. But it isn't exactly what happens. If the public truly understood what happened when they called 911, the split six second decisions, the technical juggling, and the emotional weight, they wouldn't just be less frustrated. They would be in a awe of the professionals behind the headset. I believe there would be more compassion for what our first first first responders do on a daily basis. And I think the biggest misconceptions that I've seen, example, callers believe we know exactly where they are, but we actually don't, right? And because of the training into the different pieces of technology that we have to rely on, you know, in order to assist us with finding the caller's location, right? And they also say, well, why are you asking so many questions? Again, they don't understand that this information is very imperative to the responder that's going to the scene. It's basically giving them their situational awareness about the incident. And so, again, also 911 callers, we're not just admin staff. We are the lifeline between the incident and the responder.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Absolutely. And that's the thing, too, is a lot of times you'll start asking the questions and they'll say, Well, why do you need to know that? And once you explain, well, I need to know for my officer safety, or I need to know, you know, to let the responders know, then a lot of times they're like, Oh, okay, you know, I'll continue answering questions. But maybe if they knew that beforehand, we wouldn't have to take that time to do that. So what's the one thing? I'll pose this to Michael. What's the one thing that you wish every single community member knew about the 911 system?

SPEAKER_03 7:52

Well, that each, every telecommunicator in the 911 system is a precious resource. You know, they're not police officers, these are people that are trained specifically for understanding, you know, what your emergency is and sending the proper uh resource or response for that. You know, and it's just so important for the community just to listen to like the instructions and some of the questions that these uh call takers are asking of them. It's in order to, you know, get them the response that they need to help you with your emergency.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Absolutely. So let's kind of turn and let's talk about the professionals inside of the telecommunication center. So, why is ongoing education so critical for telecommunicators beyond basic certification?

SPEAKER_05 8:37

So in 911, things are always evolving. Every day something's changing. There's a new piece of technology added, there's something different every day. I think I can say that every day is different in 911. And so ongoing education is the bridge between competence and mastery. 911 went from landline phones-based calls to next gen 911. It prepares you for the possibilities. We never know what the next call or incident will be, but with ongoing education, it will provide the tools necessary in order to handle the next event. High frequency, low stress calls can dull the reflexes needed for low frequency, high stress calls such as CPR events, the standard of care, laws and medical protocols like CPR again, they change. Ongoing education ensures the dispatcher is providing the current standard of care. So it teaches dispatchers how to offload the adrenaline of a 12-hour shift so that they don't burn out or develop PTSD, making sure that they understand uh what that what that is as far as taking care of yourself. I remember uh this wasn't a thing 24 years ago. When we had a tough call and we were stressed out, we were just, you know, that's it. We had a conversation and and and that's what we did, and we kept going. You know, we were expected to keep going. And then also training on de-escalation, ongoing education provides advanced verbal judo or de-escalation techniques that weren't part of basic training a decade ago. I mean, they just as long as you didn't cuss the caller out, I mean, you still were able to continue your job. So things have definitely changed.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Absolutely. Well, and I like what you said because um policies are always changing, protocols are changing, uh, technology's changing. So, you know, what was valid even a year ago may not necessarily be valid right now. So we need to make sure that we're always, always learning more. So, what does quality professional development look like for a 911 professional? And what makes the difference between training that sticks and training that doesn't?

SPEAKER_04 10:36

I love this question because I think in the job of 911, there's so much that we could know, like right, like as Tippy mentioned, like the what if, like you just you never know. And so it over the years, like I think we've kind of gotten stuck in like checklists and task lists, and you know, making sure we go down that list and we've covered everything. But really, quality professional development is the training that's going to actually prepare us and really looking at not, you know, what not necessarily what does this checklist say, although it can be helpful, but like what's gonna truly prepare us to take on this role. And then again, tying back into everything's changing because sometimes, you know, if we fall back on kind of how we've done it before, we've missed things, and as updates and changes come, you know, we end up missing those. So, you know, quality professional development is going to be what is actually gonna prepare us for the job and make us successful, and then also make us successful for handling the things that come with the job, like the emotional and mental toll of it.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Mm-hmm. And I love when you when you go to a class and you leave that class and you're so excited and you, you know, you you're wide-eyed, and it's so exciting that you want to go tell everyone at your center. That's good training.

SPEAKER_05 11:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

So, Michael, what barriers do agencies typically face when it comes to providing their teams with the education that they deserve? And how can those be overcome?

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Right. I'm just thinking about when I used to call take and uh train during that time, you know, like having multiple roles and trying to, you know, call take and then supervise and then train at the same time, you know, juggling all those different types of responsibilities was definitely a limitation for some of the you know, the trainees that I had to uh to work with during that time. Uh you know, thinking about like limited data. So, you know, you always provide feedback, but you know, looking at like the larger picture of what those pieces of feedback kind of incorporate or encompass, looking to see all those as a as a whole. And then, you know, just advancements, you know, thinking about education for some of these newly promoted telecommunicators. You know, I'm thinking some of my experiences, you know, like I may have been uh, you know, proficient and uh, you know, a good supervisor, but there's probably other techniques that I probably could still have learned during that time to help me overcome some of those like communication challenges and stuff like that. But ways to overcome those is definitely with uh more education, more training, especially as it gets to like advancements, limited data, learning how to look at those uh pieces, find correlations, and then make actionable decisions on them.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Absolutely. And when we talk about that on barriers, there's so many agencies that are able to put in the initial training, you know, at the beginning of someone's career, you know, maybe in an academy or or whatnot. But it seems like as soon as somebody's signed off and they're on their own on the floor, it's training stops. And and it should be just the opposite. A lot of people will put that in policy too, saying, you know, that they need 20 hours a year or however many hours a year. But then it comes down to, well, we didn't really have time to provide you that training, or we didn't have time to get you off the floor. And, you know, fortunately, there's a lot of training available for people, especially in the day and age that we live in with technology. We don't always need to send somebody to a class anymore. We can bring that in, we can bring that in virtually, or again, lots of different ways to to train that uh we can enable our um staff, and especially as they advance, to still get the education that they need.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

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SPEAKER_00 15:30

So let's move on to educating the community. Talking about community education, why does it matter that the public is educated about 911? And then what's the downstream impact on emergency response? Halcyon?

SPEAKER_04 15:45

I think one of the biggest reasons it matters is just the like the level of seriousness with those calls, right? Like they're life or death, they're critical. So just even knowing how it works, because in that moment, there's a lot coming at you. Like, you know, they experience that stress response, they're not able to think as clearly, make the best decision. So if you already know what that's gonna be like and that they're gonna ask a lot of questions and they don't know, you know, exactly where you are all the time, it makes it that much easier. And they get a better understanding of why, unlike the TV shows, you know, we can't walk you through a tracheotomy and how that does not apply in the real world. And and it it just makes the whole process easier. Like there's less pushback because they understand again, things like questions easier for those who are actually then responding in the field because you know they know what the next steps are gonna look like. And then again, too, they know like what our limitations are that the technology is not perfect, and so we have to adapt and maybe do different things to help overcome that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Absolutely, I totally agree. So, Michael, what are some of the most effective strategies or programs that you've seen agencies use to engage and educate their communities?

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Right. Um you know, working in my my agency, I I know we we used to go to uh national night out. It was a a a good time for the telecommunicators to go and see the public in person and go and provide additional resources as it pertained to uh call take and dispatching, school events, you know, going and and speaking with uh different students, educating them on how we actually go and uh you know, call take, providing tours. So we provided tours to our our center multiple times so that way they could see the um the actual process and what that would look like. And then now, you know, we have the uh simulations where you can actually go and have someone take a call and understand what that call looks like. Uh so you know, actually use it utilizing a simulation to actually practice that skill and understand it goes a long way.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Absolutely. And that's the thing. There's so many different ideas that a lot of our agencies have shared with us. And even that I used to do at the high school that I taught at, there was one event that we were doing yearly for a few years, and it was called Dunk a Dunk a Deputy. And it was at our highway patrol, and all of the students would go and they would assist at these different booths where they were assisting with educating the public about 911 and its use. But then also the students were invited into the center so that they could tour the center, do sit-alongs. So it kind of helped both. It was educating the public about the proper use of 911, but then it was also recruiting students and showing them what the job of 911, uh, what a 911 dispatcher was like at their at their center in hopes that upon graduation maybe they would, you know, work there. And actually it worked. And it worked for the citizens as well. It was a great event. So, Tippi, how do tools like CommsCoach help agencies bridge that gap between the communication center and the community?

SPEAKER_05 18:51

Well, I'm I must say, and I guess I'm going to be biased, but CommsCoach is probably one of the best things that has actually been created because before we had no way to simulate a call. We had no way to be able to practice in a 911 center. You heavily relied on a person. And so while the community rarely sees the telecommunicator, they feel the results of their training through more professional, accurate, and rapid responses. The platform uses AI to evaluate 100% of calls rather than the traditional one to 2% manual sample. This ensures that whether a resident is calling for a minor theft or cardiac arrest, they receive a consistent, high-quality customer service experience. Also, through the positive wall boards and performance dashboards, agencies can share success metrics with city councils and community stakeholders, moving the narrative from we are understaffed to we are performing at a 90%, 96% accuracy rate, an example. Immersive training by using simulations from world real-world calls and closing the feedback loop. If a community member has a negative experience, Commscoach can help identify exactly where the breakdown occurred. So literally finding that needle in the haystack is what Commscoach has been able to help us do.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Oh, absolutely. And and it's nice that a lot of our agencies have been using Commscoach out in the community at different events and and letting people actually take those calls. And again, as you said, it's nice that it's being used in training because Yeah, role-playing is is is not the thing when you're dealing with a human caller, when you can actually have an AI voice and and really get the experience of an actual 911 call. So it's become an an awesome, awesome tool that agencies um love for training and then again for training for the community. So there's a workforce crisis in 911 right now. Speaking of that, agencies are struggling to hire and keep people. So how does education play a role in retention and in keeping good telecommunicators in the profession?

SPEAKER_03 20:58

So I mean in terms of uh education, I always felt it answers the why to a lot of things. So the why as it relates to my position and helps me understand, you know, how how it relates to everything that I'm doing in terms of work, makes me confident what I'm doing, and it, you know, it helps me to help others and it allows me to grow within the organization. And then, you know, if I keep growing, it's just gonna make me want to stay and continue to uh keep doing good things with the organization. Um, it helps me know that they support me by all the uh the the education that they're helping me with. And it's just uh an accomplishment. It makes me feel good about what I'm doing and it just keeps me going.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

And that's what we've uh discussed before is when you have that confidence, you're able to handle those calls and you're likely to stay in the center. Um because and confidence only comes with that education and the knowledge, skills, and abilities. And if you feel comfortable in doing those, when a call goes bad, which calls do go bad, you feel as though that you Did everything that you could and you're able to handle that next call. If you take that bad call and you didn't have those tools and you didn't have that education, that's where we see people leave this profession. And they were probably some great people that could have done amazing things throughout their career. And it was just too much for them because again, they didn't have the tools in their tool belt to be able to handle the situations that come about in this job. So talking about recruitment, how can education, both public and professional, actually help agencies attract new talent to this field?

SPEAKER_05 22:35

So this is an area that I see often, you know, being in a role where I actually was a part of recruitment previously to this role. You know, candidates will always ask, what type of training are you doing? What type of development are you doing? And so when you have someone that is interested in that, that speaks distances as far as where they're trying to go in their career, because, you know, this is not just a it's not a job, it's a career. And so public education brands the role into what it actually is the first, first responder. High school college outreach by introducing 911 curriculum into criminal justice or health science tracks. We capture talent before they choose a career in nursing or patrol. Um professional education attracts talent by showing a clear trajectory of growth. High quality candidates don't want a dead end seat, they want a ladder, they want the opportunity to move up. And, you know, myself as an example, I started as a 911 call taker and ended my 24-year career as a chief of staff in 9-1-1. So that's exactly what we're speaking to. And when an agency invests in professional education, it signals to potential recruits that the department cares about their long-term brain health and career longevity, not just filling a seat.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Absolutely. I totally agree with everything you said. So, Halcyon, what would you say to a young person or even someone considering a career change about why emergency telecommunications is worth pursuing?

SPEAKER_04 24:02

I think there's a lot of reasons. I think one of the big ones that we talk about, you know, is just the idea of the positive impact you can have, like how you can help people in this role. Every single day, there's usually an opportunity that comes up to make that impact. But there's a lot of other reasons as well. You know, there's, as I mentioned, like there's not, you know, no two days are the same, even ones that kind of feel similar, there's always something changing. And you get a lot of like experience on a lot of different things, you know, depending on where you work and the agency size and kind of demographics and geographic area. Uh, and so there's always, you know, differences that way to kind of keep it, keep it new and keep it fresh over time, as well as it it is a career, and there's so many places you can go, right? You know, everybody, all of us here today, like we all started, you know, in the center in the industry, and then we've grown and taken other positions from there. So the kind of the the options are limitless in the sense of where you can take it, but also that you can stay, you know, on the front line, again, continuing to make that impact throughout your entire career. There's just a lot of different paths you can take within the industry.

SPEAKER_05 25:06

And Gloria, absolutely. If I can just add to that, the other thing that I'll say is that, you know, as far as this career, again, 24 years ago, we did not have the programs or the support that we have today for a person going into this career field, you know, you're going in with the support of a wellness, wellness programs, you know, supervisors that are trained to actually supervise, that have the emotional intelligence and and understanding psychological safety. So that was something that's totally different. And I think that now, with like I said, with the many different resources that we have, the enhanced training, I think this is the right time to do it if you were going to even think about doing it.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Absolutely. And it's the exposure too. There's so many people that don't have any clue what a 911 dispatcher, 911 operator does. And even at my school, we had students coming to the school, it was a public safety high school, and had no idea until the student actually walked down the hallway and saw the lab and learned a little bit about it and thought, wow, how cool is this? And even their parents. So you had high school students, once they were exposed, wanting to go in this career, and then you had parents that were currently in careers. And then once they learned what their student was doing, and once they were exposed to that dispatch lab, and again saw that it was an awesome job. And they were willing to change to do this, and it's a lot of exposure, and again, falls back on training as well. So I always love it when we can bring this back to real moments. Can each of you share a story, like something that you witnessed or experienced that really crystallized for you why education in this field matters so much?

SPEAKER_05 26:51

Well, I will say my very, I feel like it was, it might have been my very first call when I sat independently at uh my first agency. And so there was a baby not breathing on a SEPTA train. Um, I was working for Amtrak and the baby wasn't breathing. And so because I knew how to give EMD instructions in CPR, I actually gave the mother CPR instructions for that baby on that train. The baby survived. I won't ever forget that. Like that was my first intense call when I went into the career. And I said, Well, um, I handled that. You know, I got the praise from our captain and different things, and it made me feel really, really good knowing that that baby survived. And it just, it just really, really uh pushed me to keep, you know, to keep going and just understanding how much education matters and and you know, the importance of of education. It's it's I'll say this education is probably the liability insurance you can't buy. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Uh Halcyon.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

I know that I've probably had a ton of you know, times where it's kind of crystallized that, but I think um kind of going from the trainer perspective and the importance is just seeing like all the times that I've gotten to train people and like it clicks and like it all comes together, and you see kind of all of that, you know, the time and the the learning and development that they've gone through, and then when it all, you know, like it you just I feel like you can physically see when that light bulb turns on and they like get it. And I think that's one of my favorite parts of training and being in any type of education space is just getting to see other people realize what the education has meant for them.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

When it clicks, so Michael.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

Well, I was thinking about an event that happened once on night shift. I won't go too much into it, but just thinking about the real world implications that we have as we're taking these calls and how important they are. They have uh implications for the call taker and the responders in the field. So in terms of what we're actually taking, we've got to make sure that we're uh, you know, not making assumptions and that, you know, education is such an important resource, and you know, there's so many different elements to a call, and not knowing what those elements are and how to identify them, uh, you know, it's it's so important and so crucial.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Absolutely. And I will say there were there were quite a few moments for me as well. And one thing in particular, when it comes to education, particularly, is I always told the students, you know, after I had been in at LVMPD for so long, and then I was at the high school, um I told the students that I really had a passion for teaching them because I wanted them to be the best call takers and dispatchers they could be. Um, because at the time my husband was still in the streets, and I says, if you leave this school and you become a dispatcher and you're on the radio, and my husband's on there and he's screaming for help, I want to make sure that you have every tool that you that you can and are the best educated that you can be so that you can help him and his squad get back home to me and and their families. So, and that's the thing I think everyone should be able to be educated so that they can be the best that they can be to help the responders and the communities. So, with that being said, as we wrap up, if an agency director or a training coordinator is listening right now, what's the one thing that you'd want them to walk away and do this month?

SPEAKER_04 30:18

I would say do something. I mean, just even something simple. Uh we all have a ton going on in different agencies. You know, usually you're balancing a thousand things, but advocating for your team and helping, you know, educate your community is really important because it does, it's kind of one of those domino effects, right? Like it may seem like one more thing to have to do to plan a you know a national night out thing or put together a community event. But every time we do that, like it makes that small impact in helping the community understand what we do, which and then in turn makes your team's job just a little bit easier because now you know maybe they're not having the resistance or the pushback that they might get on a phone call because the person on the other end understands how things work.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Absolutely, Michael.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Yeah, so I would just say, you know, think about your agency, think about where it is, think about you know, any sort of gaps and what educational training would kind of fill those gaps. Find your champions, those people that you know they're always there for you and they're supporting you, the the operational needs of the center, and just uh, you know, look at those sort of uh developmental opportunities and provide as much training as you can to them to to keep uh to keep them going.

SPEAKER_05 31:35

Awesome. And Tippi. Yes, so what I'll say is this is a twofold. I'm just kind of piggybacking off of what Halcyon mentioned as far as advocating, but I'm gonna say advocate for yourself and the profession, right? No one knows the job better than you do. And, you know, another thing that we have to remember, we all use social media, right, for so many things, but why not share about the profession every so often? Share a post about 911, you know, as far as the profession is concerned. And what I'll say also is is learn as much as you can and educate yourself. And so I will I will definitely say that I will always say that education at its finest for 911.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

I totally agree with you on that one. And for the telecommunicators listening, what do you want them to know? And what message do you have for them this 911 education month?

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Well, education is an investment in yourself. You just keep an open mind, don't get discouraged, and it's never too late to learn something.

SPEAKER_05 32:30

Awesome. And Tippy, this is a career journey and it's not a job, and there will always be opportunities, many opportunities, as long as you're willing to learn to get there.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

And Halcyon.

SPEAKER_04 32:42

I think just a reminder that even though they're not physically seen, they are seen. Like we, you know, know how many people are out there working in their communities, and even those times where it maybe feels like their communities don't understand or recognize them, they're definitely people that do. So, and when it gets rough, just remembering that.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

So, Tippi, Halcyon, and Michael, thank you. Genuinely, this conversation is exactly why I love this work, and exactly why this podcast exists, and exactly why I love this team. To everyone listening, education is not a luxury in this profession. It's a lifeline. It protects our telecommunicators, it protects our communities, and it protects the future of 911. This April and every month after it, let's commit to showing up for our people. Let's commit to educating our communities, and let's commit to building a profession that the next generation is proud to step into. If today's episode resonated with you, please share it. Tag a colleague, tag your agency. Let's make some noise for 911 Education Month. Until next time, keep learning, keep serving, and keep showing up. This is the Comms Coach Podcast. Thank you again for being here.