Recognition
The Florida Sheriffs Association announced that Communications Training Officer Dominique Mathis of the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office was selected as the 2018 Dispatcher of the Year, presented annually at the FSA Winter Conference to an officer who has demonstrated exceptional service in the line of duty. The award is sponsored by Harris Corp. Mathis joined the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office in 2004 and in 2008, was promoted to senior telecommunicator. Recently, Mathis was appointed as the division’s communications training officer coordinator. Examples of the work Mathis does were noted, including Jan. 6, 2017, the day of the mass shooting at Fort LauderdaleHollywood International Airport. Mathis handled a call from a citizen hiding in a bathroom during the incident, helping her to calm down and encouraging her to let family members know she was safe. Then Mathis turned her attention to the Public Safety Answering Points where other calls were flooding in from distraught people at the airport. Another highlighted example of her work was in 2016 when Mathis received a call from a teen threatening suicide. She stayed on the line for 35 minutes keeping the young man calm while also asking him pertinent questions until law enforcement officials arrived. Dr. Chasity O’Malley, a Palm Beach State College science professor and department chair, has been selected the 2018 winner of the HAPSThieme Excellence in Teaching Award, presented by the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, in partnership with Thieme, a science textbook publisher. The annual award comes with a $1,500 honorarium, as well as a waiver of registration fees and an opportunity to present an excellence in teaching workshop at the society’s annual conference May 26-30 in Columbus, Ohio.