Keeping People Safe: Three First Responders on Their Roles at Everbridge
Paramedics, firefighters, and other first responders are among Everbridge’s clients — and they’re also part of the team. Many of the company’s employees come from emergency management backgrounds, and some are still involved as volunteers. Below, Jennifer Kinzel (Senior Solutions Consultant), Matt Severance (Account Manager), and Francis Willett (Director of Professional Services) discuss how their backgrounds in emergency services inform their work at Everbridge, and why experience like theirs is valued company-wide.
What’s your role at Everbridge?
Matt: I’m an account manager for state and local government clients, primarily on the east coast, as well as for a few larger accounts in the Midwest. I see my role as helping our clients maximize taxpayer dollars by getting as much value as possible out of our platform. Most of them start out using Everbridge to protect citizens from high-profile events like tornadoes and active shooters. But I take opportunities to remind clients that Everbridge is also a communication platform used to make everyday operations more efficient.
“One of the neat things about Everbridge is that everyone on our teams helps each other out.”—Francis
Francis: I’m the Director of the Professional Services team here at Everbridge. We provide frontline support and deployment services for our clients so they can make the best use of our product. At the moment, the State of Connecticut, the City of Boston’s Emergency Services Department, and Vanderbilt University are some of the clients I work with.
I started here in 2009, and a lot of what I do hasn’t changed. But these days, I do it with a much faster platform and a 700-person company to back me up. One of the neat things about Everbridge is that everyone on our teams helps each other out. If I’m dealing with a hurricane in Connecticut, for example, people will just pick up the phone and offer to take something off my hands. There’s a lot of support.
Jennifer: I’m a senior solutions consultant with our Professional Services team, which means I provide training, consulting, and project management for new and established clients. I work primarily with health care providers, state and local governments, and corporate accounts. Regardless of the vertical, my job boils down to helping our clients use Everbridge to keep people safe.
What were you doing before Everbridge, and why did you join?
Jennifer: I started my career in concert production and promotion, then transitioned to tech when I joined a major ticketing company as a system analyst. During my time there, I moved to a small town and got involved in emergency services as a volunteer EMT and firefighter, which is how I met Francis — he was also volunteering, as the town’s emergency management director. When he explained what he did at Everbridge, I thought, “I could totally do that!” He had me send him a résumé, and the rest is history.
“If you can teach someone how to manage a scene or fire, you can absolutely transfer those skills to training someone on our platform.” —Jennifer
I knew right away I’d made the right call. The Boston Marathon incidents happened barely a month after I started, and I’ll never forget how mind-blowing it was to see this system in action at that level. It was used to deploy SWAT and TAC teams, staff the hospitals , and helped keep millions of people out of harm’s way by issuing the largest shelter in place order I think we’d ever seen.
Francis: That week really had an impact on all of us, especially because it was right in our backyard. It was the first time, at least since I joined, that we used our system to keep our own employees safe and our own business running.
As for my background, I was first introduced to Everbridge as a client, back when I was a volunteer emergency management director in my town. I had a good consulting job with IBM at the time, but Patrick, one of Everbridge’s founders, kept after me and eventually convinced me to join the team. I was the first east-coast Everbridge employee, and I was a little nervous about working for this startup that was based on the other side of the country. But I could tell on day one it was going to be a smooth transition. It was also a chance to work for a company that truly helps people. Where I live, the Everbridge platform keeps the people of Connecticut safe; as well as Boston, where my sister lives; Vermont, where my son goes to school. If I trust it to keep my own family safe, I know it will work for anyone else who uses it. That’s powerful.
Matt: The mission was a big part of why I joined, as well. My background is in institutional money management — things like 401ks and other benefit plans — and I worked a lot with firefighters, police, and nonprofits in Taft-Hartley plans. So I clicked with the state and local government folks, and I love the feeling I get when I help those agencies do their jobs more efficiently.
Tell us more about your experience in emergency services.
Francis: I’ve been a volunteer firefighter for eight years now, and a Lieutenant of the department for four. I work with a great group of men and women. It’s scary to go into a fire and realize you may not come out, but it’s also very rewarding to support the community and keep people safe. And it’s quite a thrill to drive a fire truck!
It’s not always easy to balance volunteering as a first responder with a full-time job, but the first responder experience allows me to offer valuable insight to our Everbridge clients.
“Volunteering is an opportunity both to help the community and to put myself in my clients’ shoes.” — Matt
Jennifer: Working from home helps, when I’m not traveling. And most of our clients understand when we need to be flexible, because so many of them are in emergency services themselves.
I started as a firefighter and EMT 13 years ago. It was kismet — I’d been looking for something fulfilling, something that would make a difference. And then a brochure showed up in the mail about the town needing volunteers. I immediately signed up for an EMT class at the firehouse and, with a bit of convincing, went through firefighter training as well. It was one of the most life-changing decision I’ve ever made.
Matt: I’m a little different from Francis and Jen in that I joined Everbridge before I got involved in emergency services. Last year I started as a volunteer radiological officer for a town near a large nuclear power plant. My job is to work with the devices that monitor radiation levels in the event of a plant malfunction, so we know whether it’s safe to stay in the field.
I saw volunteering as an opportunity to help the community, but also to take my role here to the next level by putting myself in my clients’ shoes. Now, when we’re discussing their FEMA-graded exercises, I know exactly what it’s like because I’ve been through one myself. It’s made me more empathetic and given me a greater appreciation for the work my clients do.
In what other ways does your volunteer work help you at Everbridge?
Matt: I think having directly relevant experience gives us instant credibility. Clients see it as walking the walk, and I can’t tell you how much that matters in state and local government. It’s been hugely helpful.
“We understand the mentality of doing whatever you can to help people. That mentality is at the core of who we are at Everbridge.” —Francis
The emphasis on training in emergency services is helpful, as well, because teaching is a big part of our jobs at Everbridge. Most accounts have a lot of players involved — I might be working with a CTO as well as with a sheriff or fire chief who went into emergency service when they were 18 or 20. So even within a single account, the backgrounds in technology, and the degrees of comfort with it, can vary widely. We need to understand those differences and be able to support people with all levels of experience.
Jennifer: Absolutely. Training to be a firefighter and an EMT gave me a foundation in incident command and crisis mitigation that I can apply here across every vertical I support, whether I’m working with state and local government or health care or corporate.
And as Matt said, the trust factor is huge. Your words carry more weight because clients see us as cut from the same cloth. It’s like, “Oh, you’re one of us.” Whether you’re a paramedic or a firefighter or an emergency manager, we’ve all had very similar experiences, and we’re all part of the family.
What advice would you give someone who has an emergency services background and is thinking of joining Everbridge?
Francis: If you’ve worked in emergency response, you understand the mentality of doing whatever you can to help the people you’re called on to save. That same mentality is at the core of who we are at Everbridge.
As for the transition to tech, while some first responders may not have a lot of experience with mass notification systems themselves, they’re increasingly using technology in their jobs. So the foundation is there. And their experience allows them to understand the value of Everbridge at a fundamental level, which is hugely important. When you’re personally familiar with the challenges a client is facing, you can make a big impact here. I think that’s especially true given the trajectory of the company. We’ve grown from 70 people to 700 in 10 years. That opens a lot of doors for someone with experience in this space.
Jennifer: I think the real value add is that if you’ve been in the fire service or you’re an EMT or a medic, it’s your job to deal with crises. When you can stay calm and collected in those situations, you bring a lot to the table at a company that deals with emergencies every day. If you can teach someone how to manage a scene or navigate a fire, for example, you can absolutely transfer those skills to training someone on our platform.
One of the realities of working in emergency services is that it can be tough to see what we see and do what we do, both mentally and physically. Not everyone can or wants to do that for the rest of their career. Whether someone has burnout and is looking for a career change, is looking to start their next chapter, or loves the life and continues to volunteer, working at Everbridge is a great way to continue making a difference and saving lives.
