I am honored to be nominated for the position of Texas NENA Vice President!
My name is Maria Lemonds, ENP I have been married to my wonderful, supportive husband, Chris, for 26 years. Our Children, Falon and Dutch, are furry and have four legs. I am also the proud Aunt of 9 Nephews, 3 Nieces, and 3 grandnieces.
I have been employed with Collin County Sheriff’s office for over 20 years; 6 years as a line level dispatcher and 14 years as a shift supervisor. I love working the console and still do so at least twice a week so that I am able to assist in the training our new dispatchers. One of my passions is 9-1-1 Public Education. I participate in school presentations and the Citizens on Patrol Academy.
I have a vast array of training experience:
2011- Certified TCOLE Instructor Accreditation
2011- TCIC Associate Trainer Accreditation
2014- ENP Certification
2014- Master Telecommunicator Certification
2018- ENP Recertification
I have also participated
2
FBI Leeda Leadership course
s
as well as NENA leadership webinars.
I am a member of Texas NENA, Texas TERT, Texas 9-1-1 Trainers, and the Public Educators of Texas.
I began my journey with Texas NENA in 2012 as a volunteer and in June 2015, I was elected to the Texas NENA board as Secretary. I served for two years and gained much insight on the workings of Texas NENA. I was responsible for taking minutes on all conference calls and verifying that information was correct and certified prior to being uploaded to the Texas NENA Website. In 2016, I served as the Finance co-chair for the Texas Public Safety Conference and in 2017-2018 I served as the Finance chair. In 2017, I was appointed as the Texas NENA Treasurer.
One of my goals as Vice President of Texas Nena would be to raise money for the Juan Gomez Benevolence fund. This fund is beneficial for Telecommunicators and their families in their time of need. I want to ensure that everyone in the 9-1-1 Community is aware of this valuable resource and that funds will be available when needed. One way to accomplish this goal would be to have raffles at the Spring and Fall Conferences.
I am an active member of TERT and was deployed during Hurricane Harvey. Texas TERT – Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce are a group dedicated professionals who are ready to deploy to areas of disaster to assist PSAP’s. This program is beneficial to everyone in the 9-1-1 community because you never know when disaster is going to strike. Texas TERT is in need of trainers and also agencies that will allow their telecommunicators to participate in the program. During my Hurricane Harvey Deployment, shift supervisors did not know what to expect when we arrived and were pleasantly surprised when they found out the services that we were able to offer them. I am so happy that I was able to participate in the Hurricane Harvey deployment. I now have lifelong friends from Dickenson PD.
My qualification
I have been on the TX NENA Board for 4 years, 2 years as Secretary and 2 years as Treasurer and have enjoyed every minute of it.
I have experience with how to prepare a Budgets, 3 years as Finance Chair for Joint Conference and 2 years as Treasurer for TX NENA.
As Secretary I have experience with maintaining records of all kinds, email lists and lists of Board members. Making sure the information gets to the Webmaster to be uploaded onto our website.
Since 2012 I have done different positions for the Joint Conference, 2012 – 2014 Gift Chair and Co- Chair, 2014 – 2016 Sessions Co-Chair and Chair, 2016 to present Finance Co-Chair and Chair.
Lastly during the Harvey Relief I was only a small part of the effort, however it was my responsibility to monitor the incoming donations and then make sure that those who had sent in a request for assistance received the monies that we had collected.