Commission

Expanding First Response Commission

The national Expanding First Response Commission launched in February 2023 with 21 leaders from across the country who bring with them diverse perspectives and expertise. Comprised of direct service professionals; elected officials; people who have previously been incarcerated and have experience with addiction, poverty, trauma, and mental illness; practitioners; and research experts, this first-ever commission is intended to help shape the conversation on and offer recommendations for the advancement of community responder programs in jurisdictions across the nation.

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Guiding Principles for the Commission

Commission members meet regularly with the following principles guiding their work:

1. ENGAGING stakeholders and experts to develop strategies that sustain community responder models and build best practices for how they can operate as strong parts of comprehensive crisis and safety systems.
2. UNIFYING voices of national and local experts to promote community responders as part of effective crisis systems and as significant, legitimate, and professional first responders within these systems.
3. CONNECTING siloed sectors of community responder program work (i.e., dispatch and law enforcement partnership, city management, fire/emergency medical services, and elected officials) to develop a shared understanding and set of steps to advance these models.
4. ELEVATING informed voices to shape the recommendations of the commission.
5. MAKING SPACE for community responder models as vehicles for national innovation in public safety and crisis systems.

 

Commission Members 

Reverend Dr. Charles F. Boyer
Co-founder, Salvation and Social Justice,
Trenton, NJ

Annie Burwell
Program Manager, Crisis Response Unit,
Round Rock Fire Department, Round Rock, TX

Andrew Dameron
Director,
Emergency Communications for City and County of Denver, CO

Lorraine Davis
Founder and CEO, NATIVE, Inc.,
Bismarck, ND

Dr. Edward Fernandez
Clinical Director, EAC Network,
Queens Community Reentry Assistance Network and TASC Mental Health Diversion Program, New York, NY

Mark Gale
Criminal Justice Chair,
National Alliance on Mental Illness, Greater Los Angeles County, CA

Dr. Matthew Goldman
Medical Director, Comprehensive Crisis Services,
San Francisco Department of Public Health, CA

Chief Toryono Green
Fire Chief,
City of Tacoma Fire Department, WA

Chief Anthony Holloway
Police Chief,
St. Petersburg Police Department, FL

Brittany Lovely
Systems Change Consultant,
Washington D.C.

Councilmember Mary Lupien
Vice President,
Rochester City Council, NY

Tansy McNulty
Founder and CEO,
1 Million Madly Motivated Moms, Las Vegas, NV

Sheriff Dr. Currie Myers
Sheriff (retired),
Johnson County, KS

Dr. Rebecca Neusteter
Executive Director,
University of Chicago Health Lab, Los Angeles, CA

Captain Matt Parrish
Fire Captain,
Columbus Division of Fire, OH

Carolyn Presnell
Community Engagement Director,
Weld Seattle, Seattle, WA

Mariela Ruiz-Angel
Director, Albuquerque Community Safety Department,
Albuquerque, NM

Tiffanie Sneed
Senior Legal Advisor,
Town of Chapel Hill, NC

Carlos Sosa-Lombardo
Director, Department of Community Resilience,
City of New Haven, CT

Senator Jill Vogel
State Senator,
Virginia District 27,
Warrenton, VA

Dr. Amy Watson
Professor,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee