Later this month, Lyon County Emergency Communications Director Roxanne Van Gundy will be among those in the emergency communications field to make the trip to Washington DC to advocate for and educate lawmakers on the 911 profession.
Van Gundy will be participating in 911 Goes to Washington, a national advocacy event “focused on strengthening and protecting the nation’s 911 system.” Ahead of her trip, Van Gundy joined KVOE’s Morning Show Tuesday to discuss the trip, noting there are two key focuses for her.
The first is to shed light on the need for enhanced infrastructure for Next Generation 911 (NG911) and connectivity to 911 services. Van Gundy notes that while 911 is a national operation, not everyone in the nation is as connected as others.
Also, Van Gundy will be focusing her efforts on advocating for a reclassification of 911 dispatchers as protective service workers, a better classification for their role as first responders. Aside from the title and recognition that comes with the recalssification, Van Gundy says this action would shed light on the true impacts the profession can have on those within it.
Besides the reclassification, which is currently part of the 911 SAVES Act of 2025 bill, federal lawmakers are also considering the Enhancing First Response Act, which would formally recognize dispatchers as first responders, strengthen systems against outages and help compliance with federal 911 access mandates.
The 911 goes to Washington event will take place February 22-25.
