Bonnie Ferenbach

Program Manager, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program

Bonnie Ferenbach is a Program Manager for AATTAP’s eLearning, website and publications project deliverables. She coordinates AMBER Alert’s AMBER Advocate and AMBER Alert in Indian Country websites and serves as the primary contact for content, design and functional components for all technology projects. Bonnie is an experienced curriculum designer and instructor, is skilled in public speaking and presentation, and serves as a founding member of the NCJTC’s Distance Learning team.

Bonnie also coordinates the development, editing and deployment of the AMBER Advocate newsletter. In this role, she works with AATTAP Associates and personnel to produce a high-quality publication reflecting the work of AMBER Alert partners across the US and internationally. Bonnie is also responsible for the coordination of AMBER Alert’s major publications and related holdings.

Representing the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program, Bonnie served on the executive team and training committee of the NCMEC Missing Kids Readiness Project and Public Safety Telecommunications Best Practices Project, which authored APCO ANS1.101 National Standard for Public Safety Telecommunicators When Responding to Calls of Missing, Abducted and Sexually Exploited Children.  She is a lead trainer for the AATTAP’s Telecommunications Best Practices for Missing and Abducted Children (TELMAC) curriculum, which provides law enforcement and PSAP personnel with critically important background and operational guidelines in the area of call handling, intake and data management in cases of missing, abducted and sexually exploited children.

Bonnie was a member of the Illinois State Police for over a decade and for the last six years of her tenure there, served as a Regional Manager within the Division of Administration, Communications Services Bureau. In that role, she was responsible for administration, oversight and coordination of dispatch, data management, and emergency call-taking operations in central and downstate Illinois. While with the ISP, she also served as a member of the ISP training academy, working in training and professional development initiatives in law enforcement including competency-based programs, curriculum development, instructional design, authentic assessment methodologies, and team/group facilitation.

In 2001, Bonnie began close collaboration with the Illinois AMBER Alert Coordinator and Missing Children’s Clearinghouse Manager to prepare for the implementation of the Illinois AMBER Alert program in 2002. She coordinated the development, design, training and implementation of the telecommunications operations necessary to support the Illinois State Police's role as the control point for the issuance of all Illinois AMBER Alerts. She coordinated the development, with exceptional input from front line dispatch staff, AMBER Alert control point internal communications policies, procedures, and training materials. The experiences and lessons learned through this process inspired her to work with other public safety telecommunications professionals to develop national training and resources to support telecommunicator/call-takers in their ability to provide effective and compassionate first response to families and communities in cases of missing, abducted and sexually exploited children. Bonnie holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from Millikin University.