Kristen Rowlands said she was scared when she accepted a position as a Luzerne County 911 dispatcher in 2016.
Nobody in her family had been involved in firefighting, emergency services or law enforcement before.
Her prior work was as pharmacy technician for nearly a decade and opening a home bakery after learning pastry arts at Luzerne County Community College.
Plus she gets teary-eyed easily. How would she fare talking emergency callers through traumatic situations?
“I didn’t think I could do it, but I did,” said the 38-year-old Plymouth resident. “It may be hard, but all jobs are hard at first.”
Now a county 911 supervisor still actively processing emergency calls, Rowlands is among three 911 workers selected statewide to appear in a series of videos and commercials as part of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency’s “#iam911” telecommunicator awareness campaign.
This initiative aims to show the public that 911 telecommunicators are “more than just an invisible voice on the receiving end of a frantic phone call,” county Manager Romilda Crocamo recently told council in an email announcing Rowlands’ selection.
PEMA also is trying to increase awareness of the 911 industry to help counties recruit and retain personnel, its website says.
“Over the last few months, I have been fortunate to work closely with Kristen,” Crocamo told council. “She is an exceptional person, dedicated to her work and the people of Luzerne County.”
Rowlands applied for the campaign in November and learned she was a finalist in March. She was selected following an interview in April and participated in a production shoot in August at the York County 911 Center. She is awaiting word on specific details about the public release of the footage.
Rowlands said she doesn’t relish being in the spotlight but pushed herself on behalf of colleagues. The center “always seems to be cast in a negative light,” especially in recent years, she said.
Plagued with staffing shortages, the agency also periodically has received negative media coverage over the handling of an emergency call and wait times to get someone on the line.
“Our center is in rough shape with staffing, but if anyone could bring some positivity and good attention back to light, it was going to be me,” Rowlands said. “I love my job and all of my coworkers and I am tired of seeing their daily struggles. I want to show the world we are hard workers, incredibly talented and that a 911 dispatcher is a job that anyone can do.”
She believes she was chosen for the PEMA campaign because she strives to remain upbeat.
”The job is hard enough the way it is, and I try to make the best out of every situation,” she said.
Of course, sometimes that’s not possible. She is still pained recalling an emergency call from a boy whose friend was dying in an accidental drowning in her neighborhood a year ago.
As needed, she leans on a “large and very supportive family” to process on-the-job stress and balance her home and work life.
Her life is busy, by choice. She has two children — Hunter, 11 and Piper, 2 — and married John, a Plymouth borough firefighter, in March 2022. She also serves on the borough’s planning commission, “where we put together ideas on how we can make the town a better place.”
Coworkers also provide camaraderie, although she must endure some ribbing over her new role as center ambassador.
“If they didn’t make fun of me, it would not be normal,” Rowlands said, laughing. “They’re happy something good is coming to 911.”
Information about 911 job openings is posted in the county human resources career opportunities section at luzernecounty.org.
While the number fluctuates, the center has approximately 30 telecommunicator vacancies.
County management and the union have been working aggressively on options to address staffing, said Lucy Morgan, who works as the county’s emergency management agency director and has been serving as acting 911 executive director since Fred Rosencrans left for other employment the end of July.
The 911 center marked its 25th anniversary in June and provides police, fire and emergency medical dispatching for 175 agencies throughout the county.
It is one of the top 15 busiest of the 62 countywide dispatch centers in the state, processing an average 430,000 emergency and non-emergency calls annually, officials have said.