Get to Know Serena Franks
12/فبراير/2026
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We’re the first contact. We set the tone for how the call is going to go.... It’s really important that we handle the call well.
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Serena Franks, Assistant Director of Operations at the Emergency Communications Department, knows that no one dials 911 on their best day. But despite the intensity that can often characterize emergency communications work, the opportunity to serve members of the community in need is why she loves her job.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think that there’s another job like this. Where I can help somebody with something major, like I can help somebody get through their child not breathing, or the fire at their house, and then in the next moment, I can talk to somebody who wants us to go check on a family member because they’re worried about them,” Franks said. “There’s no job where I feel like you’re helping people in the way that we’re helping them, in so many different ways. I’ve always really liked this type of work.”
In her current role, Franks takes the lead on various aspects of the day-to-day operations of a department that runs 24/7, including managing employees, assisting with hiring and training, and coordinating with vendors and outside agencies. This work also involves significant knowledge of other City departments, as Emergency Communications touches virtually every department in some way.
While she no longer works the phones as frequently now as she did as a dispatcher, something Franks especially values about her current role is the opportunity to share her passion for and knowledge of emergency communications with members of the staff.
“What I love about this current role, on top of the other things I love about being able to be out there [on the phones], is getting to support the staff and getting to teach the staff,” she said. “I love to teach, and I love to pass on the knowledge I’ve learned, and I like to learn from them too, because there’s so much that we can learn from each other.”
Before coming to Cambridge, Franks worked in public safety for over 20 years, beginning as an emergency dispatcher in Texas. Over the years, she has seen the emergency communications field evolve, particularly as technology has developed. The field has also grappled with increasing mental health crises in communities since the pandemic, and something that drew her to Cambridge was the City’s unique approach to mental health calls, including through collaboration with the Community Safety Department.
Franks told the story of how collaboration between Community Safety and the Police Department led to a positive outcome for a gentleman suffering a mental health crisis.
“It was a really great collaboration, because Community Safety was able to talk with him, spend time with him, get him some resources, and the police knew that they could count on Community Safety to help that person, and then we were able to get a positive outcome there,” she said.
At the same time, Franks has also seen an increasing focus on the mental health and work-life balance of dispatchers, given the stressful nature of their work and the calls they encounter. Franks said that other members of the department were incredibly welcoming when she began working in Cambridge, and she explained that in her role, she strives to help all members of the staff feel supported in their well-being.
“You can imagine that if you’ve taken a call and it’s not a good call, and that’s compounding on these other things you’ve taken and your personal stress, it’s nice to come into an environment that you know works and is supportive,” Franks said. “So, we try to do that for the staff. That’s my goal, to really make sure that everybody can leave at the end of the day thinking that they did a good job and that they feel supported.”
Throughout this work, Franks emphasizes a customer service approach to interacting with the community, centered around empathy and the importance of perspective-taking. She aims to empower her staff to consider where a caller is coming from and always treat them with respect.
“We’re the first contact. We set the tone for how the call is going to go.... It’s really important that we handle the call well, so that the citizen on the other end can deal with the responders in the correct way too,” Franks said. “It's really important that we handle every call with care.”
Beyond just mental health, Franks says the vast array of resources the City offers to both staff and members of the community, from housing support to funding for City initiatives and departments, are also part of what drew her to Cambridge.
“Because I was coming here for a public safety job, I really wanted to see the resources available to the community, because I think that’s really important,” she said. “So, what I really liked about Cambridge is that there were resources available to serve the public. The citizens of Cambridge deserve to be able to be supported in a way that keeps them happy, healthy, and safe.”
Outside of work, Franks loves to spend time relaxing with her family, including her wife and three children, and since moving to Massachusetts, she says they have embraced the nearby coast.
“We’re really low-key, so we do a lot of beach. We do a lot of cooking out at our house; we love to barbecue. We’ve got cats and dogs, so basically, I’m a dog, cat, and kid mom,” she said. “Family-wise, we really wanted to be up in Massachusetts.”
At the end of the day, Franks says that while she did not necessarily know she would end up in the field of emergency communications, she cannot think of a more enjoyable and meaningful way she could serve the public.
“I love to be able to support the staff and support the citizens in a way that is really impactful. It’s not just coming to work everyday and doing some policies and going home ... what we do impacts the community in a big way, even though we’re like the silent partner sometimes,” Franks said.
