Maureen A. Will, Newtown director of emergency communications, has received an award from the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO).

On October 16, at the annual APCO-Atlantic Chapter conference, which was held in Mystic, Ms Will received the Director of the Year Award for the Atlantic Chapter. Ms Will was selected for that honor by her peers from the eight states in the chapter — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.

Ms Will has served as the Newtown director of emergency communications since July 2008. She took that post after serving for 30 years as a Brookfield police officer, retiring at the rank of captain.

Ms Will, who was born and raised in Newtown, also serves as a Newtown deputy emergency management director and as an alternate member on the town’s Commission on Aging.

Ms Will’s involvement with APCO includes having served as president of the Atlantic Chapter. Also, she is the chairperson of the Aging in the Communications Center Task Force, the vice chairperson of the By-Laws Committee, and a member of the Agency Training Committee.

In Ms Will’s awards letter, APCO noted that she strongly advocates on behalf of her communications staff of nine dispatchers in terms of training and technology. Notably, the Newtown Emergency Communications Center served as a testing site for the use of texting 911 before that 911 feature was implemented throughout Connecticut.