Utah NENA

06/02/2026

📣 Meet the Committee! 📣

Please join us in welcoming Katie LeFevre to the Utah NENA Government Affairs Committee!

Katie brings more than 13 years of experience in emergency communications, but if you ask her, that’s only part of her story. Family is at the center of everything she does, with four kids, two dogs, one husband… and maybe even a partridge in a pear tree. 🌳🐦

When she’s not serving her community, you’ll likely find her outdoors cycling, hiking, and enjoying everything Utah has to offer. Katie believes that most people are good and that we have far more in common than we often realize—a perspective that makes her a valuable voice in advocacy, collaboration, and strengthening our profession.

We’re excited to have Katie’s passion, experience, and positive outlook helping advance the interests of Utah’s 911 professionals.

💙 Welcome to the team, Katie!

06/01/2026

📢Welcome our new Government Affairs Committee Chair!📢

Utah NENA is excited to welcome our new Government Affairs Committee Chair, Heather Perkins. Heather is an emergency communications leader with more than 25 years of experience in public safety telecommunications. She currently serves as the Communications Manager for Metro Emergency Communications, a consolidated 911 center providing police, fire, and EMS dispatch services to multiple agencies in Utah County.

Throughout her career, Heather has served in nearly every role within a communications center, including call taker, dispatcher, trainer, supervisor, and executive leadership. Her experience spans operations management, training and quality assurance, technology implementation, strategic planning, budgeting, interagency collaboration, and organizational development.

Heather has led numerous initiatives focused on improving emergency communications services, including recruitment and retention programs, consolidation efforts, quality assurance modernization, AI-assisted technologies, next-generation 911 planning, and regional public safety partnerships. She is passionate about supporting telecommunicators, strengthening leadership development within communications centers, and building cultures that balance accountability, wellness, and operational excellence.

In addition to her professional responsibilities, Heather serves as a representative on the PSAP Advisory Committee and is actively involved in advancing the profession through legislative education, advocacy, and industry collaboration. Heather believes that emergency communications professionals are often the first lifeline during a crisis and is committed to ensuring that both the public and the telecommunicators who serve them receive the support they deserve.

Please join us in welcoming Heather to this important role as we continue working together to advance and advocate for the 911 profession across Utah.

05/28/2026

At this point, Central 911 is basically running a side hustle as Labor & Delivery. 😂🚑👶

Meanwhile the rest of us are starting to wonder… should we be worried about you city folk orrrr…? 🤨😂

Like y’all know hospitals are supposed to be the destination, right? Not just a suggestion.

Huge shoutout to the dispatchers keeping calm while simultaneously becoming honorary midwives over the phone. Truly out here earning certifications nobody asked for. 👏🏻💛

But for real, great job Kellie 😉💛

In the early Wednesday morning hours, Kellie got to be part of one of life’s most incredible moments — helping a mom and dad welcome a baby boy into the world! 👶💙

This little guy was so eager to arrive that he could barely wait for Kellie to get the address and phone number before making his grand entrance. Talk about perfect timing!

Great job to Kellie for staying calm and helping guide the family through such an unforgettable moment. We’re hoping mom and baby are both doing well and enjoying lots of snuggles today! ❤️

05/25/2026

Today we remember the heroes who never made it home. The ones who answered the call, stood the line, served something bigger than themselves… and paid the ultimate price for it.

Memorial Day is so much more than a long weekend. It’s a reminder that freedom has always come at a cost carried by brave men and women and the families who loved them.

Today we honor the fallen.
We remember their sacrifice.
And we promise they will never be forgotten. 🇺🇸

05/21/2026

🚨 LAST CALL(ish) FOR PAPERS 🚨

The deadline to submit for the Utah APCO & NENA Fall Conference is coming in HOT. 👀

🗓️ June 1st is right around the corner, which means your “I’ll do it tomorrow” era is running out of road.

The conference heads to Ogden, Utah | October 5–7, 2026, and we’re looking for real voices from every corner of emergency communications.

Got a session idea?
A story that taught you something the hard way? A training concept, leadership lesson, wellness topic, tech success/failure, or “here’s what worked for us” moment?

We want it.
Not perfect PowerPoints.
Not polished conference-speaker energy. Just real people sharing real experiences that help move this profession forward.

✨ Every discipline. One team. ✨

Submit your proposal here:
https://form.jotform.com/260845937416163

Don’t wait until 2358 on June 1st while stress-eating gas station snacks and questioning your life choices. We already know how dispatchers operate. 💀🎧

05/20/2026

Part telecommunicator.
Part stork.
100% calm under pressure. 🎧🫶🏻

Calls like these are the reminder that behind every headset is someone capable of changing, and even beginning, a life in a matter of minutes.

Way to go, Halle!!

Halle has officially been with Central for 9 months… which coincidentally, is also the perfect amount of time for the healthy baby boy she helped deliver over 911 today to fully “cook!”

We’re pretty sure this officially makes her part dispatcher, part stork.. and we are so grateful she’s a part of our team!

Way to go Halle! 🩵

05/10/2026

To the moms behind the headset, the aunts, bonus moms, grandmas, sisters… the women who raised us, stood beside us, and became part of our village without ever being asked to…

Happy Mother’s Day from Utah NENA 💛🎧

Today we celebrate the women who somehow do it all. The mom’s answering 9-1-1 calls while running on little sleep and carrying the weight of both work and home. The women comforting strangers through chaos while missing holidays, dinners, bedtime stories, and moments they can never get back.
The aunties and bonus moms who step in without hesitation.
The grandmas, sisters, coworkers, and friends who become family somewhere between midnight shifts, caffeine runs, and surviving hard calls together.

Because in dispatch… family isn’t always blood.

Sometimes it’s the woman sitting next to you at 3AM handing you caffeine and dark humor after the worst call of your life.
Sometimes it’s the coworker checking on your kids while you’re stuck on overtime. Sometimes it’s the woman who quietly notices you’re not okay before you even say a word.

And to the moms who raised us to be strong, compassionate, resilient humans, thank you. Thank you for teaching us how to keep going when life gets hard. For being the calm in our storms long before we ever became the calm in someone else’s.

This job takes a special kind of heart. Motherhood does too. Today we honor every woman who nurtures, protects, supports, encourages, and loves fiercely. 🫶🏻

05/05/2026

Today we celebrate culture, resilience, and the kind of grit that refuses to back down… which, honestly, feels a little too on-brand for 9-1-1. 🇲🇽🔥

Because dispatchers? We don’t fold under pressure—we just hit a different level of unhinged calm.

Like:
🌮 juggling three ringing lines
🌮 officers screaming for traffic
🌮 someone yelling “HELLO??” like we aren’t already there
🌮 while calmly giving CPR instructions like it’s just another Tuesday

All while thinking about tacos. 🛌💤🌮

We honor the history, the strength, and the fight behind Cinco de Mayo— and yeah… we recognize that same “we’re not going down without a fight” energy every time that headset goes on.

So today: Celebrate the culture. Respect the history. Eat the tacos. And if your shift turns into absolute chaos… just remember—

You were built for this level of spicy.

🎧 Humanizing the Headset
🌮 Thriving Together (but slightly feral about it)

05/03/2026

May is Mental Health Awareness Month… and in 9-1-1… this isn’t just a post. It’s personal. Because behind every calm, controlled voice on that line— there’s a human being absorbing chaos in real time.

You hear panic… and answer with calm. You hear screams… and become the steady voice. You hear silence… and somehow that’s the one that stays with you the longest.

And when the line disconnects? It doesn’t disconnect for you. It follows you home. It sits in the quiet. It shows up in the middle of the night. It replays… over and over… asking questions no one can answer.

“Did I miss something?”
“Could I have done more?”
“Are they okay?”

We are trained to hold it together, to be composed, professional, unshaken. But nobody teaches you what to do when the weight of everyone else’s worst day starts becoming part of yours.

So let’s say it; clearly, loudly, and without apology: You are not weak for feeling this. You are not dramatic for carrying this. You are human.

And you were never meant to carry it alone.

Check on your people, really check. Sit in the uncomfortable conversations. Make space for the hard truths. Say “I’m not okay” without brushing it off with a joke. Because the strongest voices in this profession are often the quietest about their own pain.

This job will take everything you’re willing to give it, and then ask for more. But it should never take you.

🫶🏻 Thriving Together.
🎧 Humanizing the Headset.

04/19/2026

🚨 As National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week comes to a close… 🚨

This week, members of Utah NENA had the privilege of traveling across the state—walking into centers, shaking hands, sharing laughs, and most importantly… saying thank you.

But the truth is—there aren’t enough visits, words, or posts that could ever fully capture what dispatchers do.

You are the calm voice in chaos. The steady hand behind the scenes. The one who answers—no matter the hour, no matter the weight of the last call.

We saw it this week in every center we walked into— the quiet strength, the dark humor, the teamwork, the resilience. The way you show up for your communities… and for each other.

We also want to give a special shoutout to the incredible elementary students who helped decorate the appreciation bags. Your drawings, messages, and creativity brought so many smiles to our dispatchers’ faces. 💛 You reminded us that even the smallest gestures can make the biggest impact—and that our communities are watching, supporting, and cheering these heroes on.

And while this week shines a light on your work— we know it doesn’t end here. It never does.

Because when the recognition fades and the posts stop…
you’ll still be there. Answering the next call. Holding the next life together.

To every dispatcher across Utah—
we see you.
we appreciate you.
and we are so proud to stand beside you. 🖤💛🖤

💙 Thank you for being the steady in the storm.