APCO 2026: Distinguished Achievers Breakfast

By Rick Goldstein

The APCO 2026 Distinguished Achievers Breakfast on Tuesday at the Henry B. González Convention Center recognized corporate partners, Certified Public-Safety Executive (CPE) graduates and agencies achieving national accreditation. It was capped by a keynote address from Olympic hurdler and Pan American Games silver medalist Sarah Wells on building a culture of excellence.

APCO CEO and Executive Director Mel Maier invited faculty lead Dr. Steve Edwards and faculty instructors Dr. Bob Miller and Christina Mortimer on stage to recognize the latest Certified Public-Safety Executive Program graduates. The program, designed to foster professional growth and develop public safety communications leaders, draws on leadership professionals and academic sources. Registration for the next CPE session, running March 3 to Oct. 1, 2027, is open.

President Jack Varnado appealed for donations to the Sunshine Fund, which, in partnership with the Public Safety Foundation of America, provides financial support to APCO members facing hardship. "I'm a Sunshine Fund donor, and actually, years ago, I was a Sunshine Fund recipient, and I feel great knowing that the money I contribute goes directly into the hands of our members in their time of need," Varnado said.

Craig Hartley, executive director of the Commission for Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), recognized 46 agencies that earned accreditation or reaccreditation through APCO's partnership with CALEA since the 2025 APCO conference.

Brenda Brown, partnerships coordinator for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), recognized agencies newly compliant or renewed under the Missing Kids Readiness Program training and policy standards. The standards were developed with APCO to prepare public safety telecommunicators to respond to incidents involving missing or exploited children.

Todd Perdieu, L3Harris senior director of sales in public safety, introduced keynote speaker Sarah Wells, an Olympic 400-meter hurdler and Pan American Games silver medalist.

Wells said excellence comes in the training, not the outcome. She noted that elite athletes typically spend 90% of their time training for a competitive performance that lasts a fraction of that. She spent 14 years preparing for a 55-second race. In the corporate world, she said, that ratio flips: people spend roughly 10% of their time in conferences and courses and are then expected to perform at their best the other 90% of the time. Excellence, she argued, requires a "training mindset" that treats learning, experimentation and imperfection as part of growth rather than a phase to move past.

Wells said three elements mark excellent people and organizations.

The first element is going all in. Wells was cut from every team she tried out for in high school before a track coach recruited her to do hurdles. Within a year and a half, she was competing internationally. Before the 2012 London Olympics, a stress fracture in her femur prevented her from hurdles training for nine months. She kept working on her core and arms. When she returned to hurdles training, she tattooed the word "believe" on her wrist and ultimately qualified for the Olympics.

The second element to excellence is raising the bar for yourself and, by doing so, encouraging those around you. Wells cited her coach's intolerance for moping and complaining for those under his tutelage. She noted that about 99% of marathoners finish their races thanks to those performing around them and energy from the crowds. And she showed a clip of the television show, "The Bear," in which a cook dismisses the task of polishing forks as pointless before learning that attention to small details sets the tone for an entire Michelin-starred restaurant.

The third element of excellence is finding strength in setbacks, even celebrating them. Setbacks lay the foundation for what comes next. Wells described a hamstring tear six weeks before the 2016 Rio Olympic trials and a narrow miss that followed: she finished fourth in the trials, missing the Olympic team by half a second. After that, Wells left international competition and took up reality show racing. She and her teammate competed in "The Amazing Race." They were sworn to secrecy about the outcome until the show aired. The pair staged a watch party with 500 people for the final episode, suggesting a victory, but they received a standing ovation in celebration when it turned out they had finished second.

Wells asked attendees to identify one action, a "fork to polish," they could take back to their agencies to raise the standard around them, and she encouraged them to find their own version of going all in.