Imagine the stress of being on the phone with someone during their most heart-wrenching moments. Think of the helplessness you would feel on the other end of the line as someone was having a life-threatening medical emergency — or trying to help a loved one in the midst of such an emergency. Consider how hard it would be to maintain a calm and professional demeanor with the person on the other end of the phone crying or screaming and the situation seeming to deteriorate with every passing second.

Now imagine doing all that as your job. That’s what an emergency dispatcher faces off and on for her entire shift, every working day. In Suffolk, Katie Gray is one of the best of this lot, answering more than 2,000 calls to 911 last year alone. Her hard work and dedication to the job recently earned her the title of Suffolk Dispatcher of the Year.

Emergency dispatchers work within the confines of a closed communications room, where they are hardly ever seen by the public, but nearly every call for emergency services in Suffolk — fire, rescue or police — goes through Gray and her colleagues. They are literally the first contact most people have with police, firefighters or rescue personnel during an emergency.

It’s a big responsibility, and keeping emotions in check on both sides of the phone line is a big part of the job. But Gray understands how important controlling her own emotional responses can be to maintaining her own sanity and her effectiveness in serving people who need quick help in the midst of an emergency.

That understanding is just one of the reasons Gray, a Franklin resident and third-generation emergency services worker, has earned the respect of her peers. And it’s one of the reasons she was honored as the city’s top dispatcher less than four years after she took the job at the age of 20.

You may never remember the voice on the other end of the line when you call 911 in the midst of an emergency. What you are likely to remember, though, is the professionalism of Katie Gray and her fellow dispatchers and the efficient, yet compassionate, manner in which they helped speed help your way.

They are a vital link in the chain of emergency services, and it’s fitting that Suffolk would recognize them as such.