30 Years as an Emergency Dispatcher!

We are sad to say goodbye to Julie Ritchie who is retiring after 30 years as a dispatcher, the last 23 of which have been with Fairbanks Emergency Communication Center!

Julie worked as a dispatcher with UAF from July 1992 to July 1999 before starting at the City of Fairbanks dispatch in July of 1999.

In addition to her significant responsibilities as an emergency dispatcher, Julie has also been a Communications Training Officer, a Training Coordinator, Quality Assurance Member and she ran the Quality Assurance Team until another position was created to take on those duties. She’s also been a tactical team dispatcher for many years, assisting the tac team with very dangerous and important operations.

For much of her time here, she has been a Shift Supervisor and she many times acted as Acting Dispatch Manager in the absence of the Dispatch Manager.

She has been integral in building and maintaining the many fire department resources, maps, and response plans in dispatch.

She provided the technical support of building new agencies in the dispatch CAD system, as well as creating and teaching dispatch policies and procedures for those agencies. Additionally, she provided IT and administrative support to many Public Safety agencies as System Administrator.

Julie helped build and launch the Pulse Point program for the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which, as we all know, provides a higher level of care and safety to Fairbanks residents.

She also has a great volunteer spirit and has volunteered for many events including Run from the Cops, Operation Glow, and Shop with a Cop.

Most importantly, she has answered thousands of calls for help, has been a great asset and team member to local police, fire, and paramedic agencies, as well as to all of our city departments…and she is part of a very impressive legacy of public service in Fairbanks.

Good luck, Julie! We will miss you SO MUCH and we hope you enjoy retired life. YOU’VE EARNED IT!

7/21/22 trsoden