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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 3 Episode 1: Tipi Brookins
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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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