For our Acadian Alumni Association spotlight, we hear from Angie Broussard, a recent retired dispatcher with more than 30 years of service at Acadian.
For 30 years, Angie Broussard worked at Acadian Ambulance in various roles, but her time as a dispatcher is what she will remember most.
Her last official day with the company came last week, on May 31. And for the three decades before that, the Lafayette native got her start in the billing department through a temp agency in 1993. She spent 13 years in that department before making the jump to Dispatch in 2005 — one month before Hurricane Katrina.
It’s there in Dispatch, through almost two decades of storms, incidents, accidents and more, where Angie created a career and a family for herself. Her career has brought her as much joy as heartache, but she wouldn’t change it for the world.
Angie Broussard has spent over 30 years at Acadian Ambulance. She spent the last 17 years as a dispatcher, and in that time, has enjoyed the work and people she met over that time.
“That was my all-time favorite job,” Angie said. “I worked dispatch for the Northshore. It was busy, but the crews were so nice.”
Helping people was Angie’s favorite part about her job. It didn’t hurt that she enjoyed talking, and working as a call taker helped her with that, she joked. But it was a job she took to, and one she was good at.
“It was my niche,” Angie said.
Chad Doucet serves as the current Director of Communications and was one of Angie’s many mentors over the years. Chad said she was a model employee every time she stepped foot in the communications center.
“Dedicated,” “loyal,” and “professional” are a few words that describe her and what she brought to her job every day that was there, Chad said.
“Her presence in the communications center and her work will be missed,” Doucet siad.
For every call she took, whether it be for a broken bone, a person in distress, or a mom with a six-hour-old baby who had trouble breathing, Angie took every call and treated them like her family.
“You are working in a 9-1-1 center and these people are calling you at their worst moment. You have to remember that perspective,” Angie said.
And Angie has seen the worst. She has been cursed at, yelled at, talked down to and much more. But her years of experience has helped in the most difficult of situations.
For every call she took, Angie took the time to explain the situation, notifying the caller that a unit was en route to their location, helping to ease the tension that was felt on the other side of the line. She said it made the conversations go much smoother. But more than anything, you have to show that you care.
“You have to have compassion,” Angie said. “You have to wear an extra layer of skin. Most of the people you talk to are not going to be cheerful.”
Throughout the hundreds of thousands of calls Angie has taken over the years, there are some she will never forget. She looks back on her time with Acadian with a fondness for everything the company has done for her and her family.
“Acadian helped me raise three kids as a single mom the majority of their lives,” Angie said. “They are like family. I had amazing managers and supervisors, and I got along with everyone.”
Now that she is retired, Angie will still stay busy. After missing so much time in her children’s lives, she is ready to make up for lost time. She has seven grandchildren, loves to camp and explore, and is looking forward to having more time for all of it in the years to come.
Her journey came to completion at the beginning of April of this year, a 30-year odyssey that she set out for herself. And now, she can rest and retire with her ESOP.
“With Acadian, you have a future,” Angie said. “It’s a company where you can start at the bottom, which is exactly what I did, and move wherever you want to go. The opportunities are endless.”
