HeyJaredFirst Call Ready
From the creator of Let’s Talk Dispatch comes First Call Ready — the podcast empowering 911 professionals to shape the future of emergency communications. Hosts Ashley Valenzuela and Megan Wilske take on the challenges, culture, and conversations driving 911 dispatchers forward.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 10, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 9, 2026
Latest episodes
Episode 4: Decoding the Alphabet: Understanding APCO, NENA & the Organizations Shaping 911 (opens the original)
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If you’re a 911 professional, you’ve probably heard the alphabet soup: APCO. NENA. ETC. But what do all of these organizations actually do—and why should you care? In Episode 4, we’re taking a brief dive into some of the organizations every 911 professional should know, while also highlighting newer and emerging organizations you may be less familiar with. These organizations play a major role in shaping the future of 911 through education, training, advocacy, standards, networking, technology,
Minisode: Stranded Motorist Turned High Speed Chase: Aurora Colorado (opens the original)
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In this minisode, Ashley and Megan break down a routine "stop to help" call that turned into a fight for an officer's life. In Aurora, Colorado, an officer pulled over to assist what he thought was a stranded motorist. Instead, the driver tackled him from behind and struck him with a sharp object before stealing his patrol car — lights still running — and led responding units on a pursuit. They break down how fast a "nothing call" can turn into an officer down and a stolen unit, what that chaos
Episode 3: Grow Anyway: How to Lead and Advance in 911 Dispatch (opens the original)
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In their third episode, Ashley and Megan tackle one of the biggest questions in the profession: How do you keep growing in a career that doesn't always make growth easy? From sharing how they each found their way into 911 to navigating promotions, leadership opportunities, and professional development, they unpack what it really takes to keep moving forward. They discuss the realities of limited support for dispatch, toxic workplace cultures, shrinking budgets, and the barriers that can make adv
Minisode: Holding the Line in Lahaina Maui Hawaii (opens the original)
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In this minisode, Ashley sits down with Megan to break down the 2023 Maui wildfires from a dispatcher's point of view, with a focus on the Lahaina fire, which was driven by extreme winds and tinder-dry conditions that turned a bad day into a catastrophe. Dispatchers were slammed with an unprecedented surge of over 4,500 calls in a single day. They talk through what it actually looks like when every system you rely on fails at once, the professionalism it takes to keep the hard truth about scarce
Ep. 2 Speak Up Buttercup: The Art of Talking and Listening in 911 Centers (opens the original)
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In their second episode, Ashley and Megan turn the lens inward — past the hiring process and straight into the culture living inside the walls of the comm center itself.Using a purple elephant code-word story, they break down how dispatchers who communicate for a living somehow struggle to do it with each other. Their take is direct: toxic culture isn't a management problem waiting to be solved from the top down — it's a room problem that every person in that room is responsible for.
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