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President Willis Carter
 Chief Willis Carter has been a member of the fire service for 36 years. He began his career in 1972 as a firefighter with the Shreveport (La.) Fire Department and was promoted to Chief of Communications in 1986. Chief Carter is responsible for the management and operations of the Fire Communications Center, which has a staff of 45 operating the primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for the Caddo Parish (La.) 9 -1-1 system.
Carter lead his department during the development and implementation of the two computer aided dispatch systems, the transition to a co-located multi-agency emergency dispatch center and migration to a parish wide 800MHz radio system which today supports over 4000 users. Carter also lead the effort to achieve national accreditation for his communications center and as a result his communications center became the first fire communications center in the nation to be awarded accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies "Public Safety Communications Accreditation Program". His agency received reaccredidation status in July of 2007. In addition to his service to his department, Carter has been an active participant in national issues which impact the public safety communications industry. He co-authored the "Firefighters Handbook," published in 2000 by Delmar Publishing. He is a member of the International Fire Chief's Association and is an assessment-team leader for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA).
An active member of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, Inc., (APCO) since 1985, he currently serves as the President of APCO International.
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