President
 

Sue is the 9-1-1 Wireless/MSAG Coordinator for the Orange County Public Safety Communications Division.  Her background in Public Safety includes serving in the United States Air Force as a Fire Protection Specialist.  And, over the last 15 years, serving in several positions including, Firefighter/EMT, Paramedic and Public Information Officer for various agencies, including the Apopka Fire Department, The Villages Department of Public Safety, the State of Florida (DOT) and American Ambulance of Central Florida.  Serving as the Wireless/MSAG Coordinator for Orange County 9-1-1 since 2001, Susan thoroughly enjoys her job and is honored to be able to continue her service in the Public Safety arena.  She has been an active APCO member since 2001.

President Elect

Joann Brown

Board Member

Joann Brown began her Public Safety career in 1988 as a Telecommunicator with the Coral Springs Police Department.  She was promoted to Supervisor in 1992 and became the Training Coordinator in 1995.  In 2006, Joann was promoted to Communications Administrator.  She has been an active member of APCO since 1996 and has served as a member of the Florida Chapter Training Committee and has assisted the Disaster Response Committee.  At the National level Joann served as a member of the 2006 APCO International Conference Communications Committee.  Joann has a son Nicholas 22, in the United States Air Force and a son Matthew 17, in high school.

Eric Ferrari

Board Member

Assistant Chief Eric Ferrari serves as the Communications Officer for Reedy Creek Emergency Services.  Starting as a dispatcher in 1993, Eric has progressively increased his responsibilities to include management of Reedy Creek’s Emergency Communications Center which includes Fire and EMS dispatching, 911 service and automatic fire alarm monitoring.  Eric is also responsible for the continuous operation of Reedy Creek’s two-way radio system which has over 400 users. 

Eric is also responsible for departmental administrative functions, including budget preparation, personnel management, short and long range planning, internal investigations, and oversight of the Department’s training program.

Being a native New Yorker, Eric enjoys spending time talking about his experience in the “up North” fire service and pulls upon these experiences to further enhance his leadership efforts.  He also enjoys speaking about Reedy Creek Emergency Services and the processes which make it a progressive agency.

Robert Jeffrey - Board Member

Debbie Gailbreath - Executive Council Representative

Debbie has been with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office since 1981. Her duties in Communications have included Call Taker, Dispatcher, Training Officer, Supervisor, Training Coordinator, Support Manager, Operations Manager and Center Manager. She currently serves as the Communications Accreditation Manager.   She has been a member of APCO since 1988 and is the Chair of the APCO International’s Member and Chapter Services Committee and is a member of the Standards Development Committee.  Debbie is a past President of FL APCO and a past President of the Communications Accreditation Support Network (PSCAN).  Debbie is an assessor for both the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) and the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation (CFA).  

Randy Kerr serves as the Captain/Division Commander with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Combined Communications Center in Gainesville, Florida. The Center provides public safety communications services for multiple agencies which include: Alachua County Fire-Rescue, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, Gainesville Fire-Rescue, Gainesville Police Department, and the City of Waldo Police Department. The Combined Communications Center is a new 24,000 square foot facility which opened in November 2000 and contains 12 Call Taker positions, 14 Dispatch positions, and 2 Shift Supervisor positions. With a budgeted staff of 109 employees, the Center is responsible for a 965 square mile county-wide service area and processes approximately 250,000 calls for service annually. 

Randy Kerr has been involved with public safety communications since 1978, starting as a Telecommunicator and progressing through the positions of Shift Supervisor, Training Coordinator, Assistant Director, Lieutenant/Bureau Chief, and Captain/Division Commander. As a graduate of the University of Florida (Go Gators!) with a BS Degree in Management, Randy also worked with the City of Alachua Police Department Communications Center and with Alachua County Fire-Rescue as an EMT on a Medic Unit. After becoming a member of APCO in 1985, Randy has served the Florida Chapter as Training Committee Chair, Chapter President, Executive Council Representative, and has held his current position of

Treasurer since 1995.

Lynn Burnside - Chapter Secretary

Lynn Burnside is employed with the Margate Police Department as a Communications Commander.

In 1982, she started her career with Margate as a dispatcher. In 1985 she was promoted to a “Lead Aide Supervisor”.  She, then, was promoted to Commander of the Communications Division in June of 1993.

She has been an active member of APCO since 1992. Lynn served as the chairperson of the State Law Enforcement Committee for three years. She also has served on the National law enforcement committee and the 9-1-1 committee.

Immediate Past President

Lori VanGilder has been active with the Florida Chapter of APCO since 1992 serving on  various committees including four Florida Conference Committees, one International Conference Committee, served as the Training Committee Chairperson for five years, and has progressed through the Chapter Board of Officers. 

Lori has been with the City of Lake Mary since Christmas Eve 1987.  Through her tenure with Lake Mary she served 8 years as a volunteer fire fighter, during which time she started to work in Communications as a part time job to put herself through college.  Since then she has worked as an Emergency Communications Operator, Communications Trainer, Community Service Officer, CSO assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division – including crime scene processing, Crime Analyst, Grant Writer, and currently as the Communications Supervisor.  Every day brings a variety of tasks and challenges and after all this time - Lori still enjoys going to work. 

Lori has presented numerous industry conferences and serves on the State Department of Education Technical Advisory Committee for Public Service Education.  Lori works as an Adjunct Instructor for the APCO International Institute, and with Seminole Community College.  Lori holds a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Central Florida in Vocational Education and Industry Training.

Steve Devries

I have over twenty years of experience in high the technology software industry.  I started my career in software design and development after earning computer science and mathematics degrees from Colorado State University.  Over the course of my career I transitioned in to other challenging industry roles including implementation services, product management, sales support and sales management.  I entered the public safety marketplace when I joined TriTech in 2003, and it has been the most rewarding time in my career to date.

Steve Parker

Steve Parker has been in the public safety industry for 14 years. He started his career in the public safety industry as the National Sales Manager for Redman Training gear in Fellsmere Florida for 6 years. He then spent three years as Vice President of sales and marketing at Paca body armor in Tennessee. Since then he has spent the last 5 years in the computer information services side of the industry. He is now the regional sales manager for Global Software Corporation covering 13 states in the southeast.

Steve has been married for 28 years and has four kids, he enjoys boating, music and working in his yard. He now resides in Orange Park Florida.

 Began public safety career with Gainesville Police Department in 1983 as a Telecommunicator. Promoted to Supervisor, then Communications Coordinator, which was basically Assistant Director to then Director Barry Luke. Became de-facto Director when Barry went to Orange Co.

 Became Bureau Chief of Communications under Capt. Randy Kerr at the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office with the historic merger of the City and Sheriff’s communication centers, October 1, 2000.  Married 16 years, wife Pam, two daughters, Bethany 15, and Courtney 13. Hobbies include running, biking, and swimming. Member of the Florida Track Club, ran competitively for UF and the track club, and coached track and field prior to public safety career.

Matt Stillwell began his Public-Safety Communications career in 1984 as a Telecommunicator with the Coral Springs Police Department. He was promoted to Supervisor in 1989 and Manager in 1994, the position he holds today.  He is a member of A.P.C.O. International's Call Center Training Standards Task Force and is a subject matter expert for the Member Assistance Advisory Program (MAAP)  Matt has been married to his wife Karen for 20 years and has 2 sons, Christopher 15, and Jonathan 11. He enjoys camping with his family, golf, bowling and playing his guitar.  Matt has been a member of the Florida Chapter of A.P.C.O. since 1994. At the National level he has chaired A.P.C.O. International's Operating Procedures and Training Committee and Best Practices in the Communications Center Task Force.  At the State level he chaired the Standard Committee and has been involved with the Training Committee.  Prior to Public-Safety Communications, Matt spent 8 years working in the broadcast industry as a radio personality.

Nancy Dzoba

Nancy has been a member of APCO since 1985.  She has served on the Chapter’s Training Committee, Executive Committee, Disaster Committee, Conference Committee, and is a Past President.  On the National level she has been a member of the APCO Institute Advisory Board, the Budget Review committee, the Members Assistance Program (MAP), and the Homeland Security Committee.  She was awarded Life Membership status in 2004.

Recently, she retired from the Ft. Lauderdale Police Department.  While employed by the Department she worked as a call taker, dispatcher, trainer and the Public Safety Communications Manager.  Currently she is employed by the Broward Sheriff’s Department as a Site Manager.

Born in Gainesville, Florida, but raised and educated in upstate New York, Clara returned to Gainesville in 1980 with the intent of staying long enough to get some “work experience”, and return to New York or the Washington, DC area, where she’d be able to put to use her BA degree in Criminal Justice, that she received from Rochester Institute of Technology (in May, 1978).  Instead, she landed a job with the Gainesville Police Department where she began as a Complaint Clerk and worked up through the ranks (Telecommunicator Training Officer, Dispatcher, Supervisor and Training Coordinator).  On September 30, 2000, Clara retired from the Gainesville Public Safety Center and, on October 1, became the Law Enforcement Training Specialist for the new Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Combined Communications Center where her responsibilities include recruiting, teaching, quality assurance evaluating of law enforcement calls, as well as a few other duties.

Clara first became involved with APCO in the mid 80’s, when she first joined the chapter’s Training Committee.  As a member of the Committee, she traveled around the state teaching APCO’s 40-hour course.  Since then, she has served as the Training Chair on a couple of occasions, 1990-1991, and again from 2003-2005.  Clara served as the Conference Committee Chair for the 2004 APCO Conference which was held in Jacksonville.  During the 2005 APCO Conference, Clara was elected to the Board of Officers where she serves as Oversight for the Training Committee.  She also serves on the chapter’s (Florida) Standards Committee.

Clara has been married to her husband, Sylvester, for 25 years, and is the mother to   Traceye, an 18-year old high school senior.

Vic Cullars

Jeff Ballard

Margaret Hamrick