Josh Fonseca - Instructor, Denise Amber Lee Foundation
My name is Joshua Fonseca. I started my career in a small dispatch center that covered about 4400 square miles and had only about two to three dispatchers on at a time. While there I dispatched for Police, Fire , and EMS on both city and county levels. While attending the New Mexico State Academy to become a certified dispatcher I realized that my second calling was in training. A year later I went back to the State Academy and became certified to become a trainer. I revamped the training program for my old center, some of which is still in place today. During my time there I joined the volunteer fire department and got experience working both sides of the radio and became a certified EMT-B for the State of New Mexico. Joining the department sparked my interest in fire science and I went on to achieve my associates degree in fire science with special interest in Emergency Management.
I left the department in March of 2015 and spent ten months working on the Las Vegas strip as a valet at the Polo Towers however, parking cars and carrying luggage up to rooms did not stimulate my mind the same way. I quickly found the position at the City of Las Vegas and started working at the Combined Communications Center.
Since joining the City of Las Vegas I’ve handled some pretty intense calls, including working the night of the Route 91 shooting on October 1st 2017. After that night I knew I would never be the same. I decided to embrace that feeling and get the word out to others and again found myself in a role of trainer. This has led to me traveling to different states to pass on my experience that night and to become a CTO within the Combined Communications Center. I’ve been a CTO for over a year now and I have to say it is just as I remembered it was, exciting and fun.