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(Ella Scott-Dean | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\nAubry Insco felt called to a career in 911 communications at 19.<\/p>\n
She had taken a part-time job as an emergency call responder in Grand Prairie to help pay her way through nursing school. A few months in, Insco answered a call from a panicked mother who had left her baby alone in a bathtub for a few seconds and came back to find the child drowning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Insco kept a cool head and quickly guided the mother through CPR until the infant started breathing.<\/p>\n
(Ella Scott-Dean | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n
Cowtown\u2019s Next Chapter is an introduction to the Fort Worth staff managing city resources, launching community-serving programs and spearheading change across the city. The series spotlights the new faces leading city initiatives and explores their visions for their roles and department priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was practically a kid at 19, and I thought, \u2018Wow, how powerful is it that I have been blessed to receive training to be able to respond to that over the phone,\u2019\u201d said Insco. \u201cBecause of my action \u2014 because of the skill set that was given to me \u2014 I was able to give a mother another day with her kid. I want to keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That call helped inspire a 26-year career in emergency communications. In November 2024, Insco joined Fort Worth\u2019s Office of Emergency Management team as the city\u2019s first 911 communications administrator.<\/p>\n
The city created Insco\u2019s position to help lead significant changes to its emergency management infrastructure that consolidates how police, fire and emergency medical services take calls<\/a> and coordinate responses. She also worked alongside the fire department as it prepared for its July 1 EMS transition away from MedStar<\/a>, its third-party provider for about four decades.<\/p>\n The two initiatives \u2014 while separate \u2014 work hand-in-hand to better equip Fort Worth\u2019s first responders to serve a city with more than 1 million residents.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost two separate things that are happening, but they do have a lot of crossover, and they have a lot of interconnectivity,\u201d Insco said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Insco directly reports to Sonny Saxton, who joined Fort Worth as its inaugural director of emergency communications and management in December 2024.<\/p>\n Equipped for new role by a \u2018cumulative build\u2019 of experience<\/p>\n Insco stayed a part of Grand Prairie\u2019s emergency response team for 26 years and, for a brief time, worked in police administration.<\/p>\n She said she\u2019s held \u201cevery role imaginable in emergency communication,\u201d from dispatching and quality assurance to instructor, most recently holding the position of emergency communications manager.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been really blessed to have some great leaders over my career who saw something in me and recognized that drive, passion and enthusiasm that I had,\u201d Insco said. \u201c(They) afforded me opportunities to learn, and when those positions weren\u2019t afforded to me, I raised my hand and I asked a lot of questions and offered to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n The emergency response world is all she\u2019s ever known, Insco said. Her husband is a firefighter, and her father and stepmother were both police officers.<\/p>\n \u201cI just connected so deeply to the mission of public safety and the significance of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Dareas Agnew, a communications supervisor for the Grand Prairie Police Department, was recruited by Insco and worked with her for eight years. He described her as a \u201cgame-changer\u201d and said her wide expertise can be attributed to her vision and ingenuity.<\/p>\n \u201cShe has the ability to keep the mission the main thing, while also ensuring that she meets the needs of her people,\u201d Agnew said. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t just work in 911, she embodies it. She lives it. Everything about her personality and what she does is to further advance the profession and take care of the people that are working.\u201d<\/p>\n Over her career, she has accumulated thousands of hours in technical and leadership training and has joined various committees in North Texas, she said. She chairs the Tarrant 911 District Board of Managers, which helps coordinate emergency call services across the county.<\/p>\n \u201cTwenty-six years in emergency communications is just vicariously a wealth of knowledge and an opportunity to grow. It\u2019s just the experience you go through \u2014 you lead, I was promoted up in my former organization several times, so that gave me varying levels of experience,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really just been a cumulative build on my knowledge and experience that has set me up to be successful in this role.\u201d<\/p>\n It was through her role with the Tarrant County 911 board that she heard about a job opportunity in Fort Worth. She was already familiar with Fort Worth facing challenges with response times<\/a> and retention, so as Fort Worth started exploring possibilities for improvements, she made it a mission to help the city however she could with her expertise.<\/p>\n Her unofficial adviser role soon led the city to approach her with a sentiment of: \u201chey, we\u2019re going to post this position. We would love for you to apply,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n After a nationwide search process, she was hired.<\/p>\n Currently, her day-to-day responsibilities are focused on the logistics of consolidating the 911 call centers. She\u2019s been building out emergency communications staff, ensuring call teams have the necessary resources they need.\u00a0<\/p>\n Insco also has been working toward the city\u2019s long-term goal of merging the public safety and fire call-taking teams in the Zipper Building \u2014 a downtown city office building that features a large zipper mural \u2014 if voters approve renovations in the 2026 bond.<\/p>\n Insco feels her entire career, and all the facets of emergency management she\u2019s experienced, have led to her new leadership role. Managing the logistical challenges puts all her skills to the test, and that\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of eyes are on Fort Worth right now, watching because we are about to be the 10th-largest city in the nation, and (they\u2019ll say), \u2018If Fort Worth can do it, well, maybe so can we,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to just show them what is possible and how that could help influence better outcomes in their own community.\u201d<\/p>\n Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org<\/a> or @shawlings601<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n Republish This Story<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Medstar_Nov24_CamiloDiaz0866.jpg\")
The city of Fort Worth rolled out its new ambulance design, left, at the Texas EMS Conference inside the Fort Worth Convention Center\u2019s exhibit hall in November 2024. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n
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