ATHENS — Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Todd J. Wallingford has been named the Athens Post’s 2026 Trooper of the Year, the Patrol announced, an honor voted on by the troopers who work alongside him. Wallingford, 30, was selected by his peers at the post, who pointed to his enthusiastic work attitude, leadership abilities, community engagement and professionalism with supervisors, peers and the public, according to the Patrol’s announcement reported by Hopewell Heritage Headlines.
Wallingford is a graduate of Vinton County High School. He joined the Patrol in 2022 as a member of the 171st Academy Class and has served at the Athens Post since graduating, and he now lives in Athens County, according to the announcement.
His enforcement record is a large part of the honor. Wallingford has been a leader in OVI enforcement at the Athens Post since 2024 — the work of stopping impaired drivers on the state routes and highways that cross Athens and surrounding counties — and in 2025 he received a MADD award for that OVI enforcement work, according to the Patrol.
The post honor moves Wallingford forward in the Patrol’s awards ladder. He is now in the running for the District and State Trooper of the Year awards, which the Patrol will announce at a later date.
The Athens Post handed out a second honor alongside Wallingford’s. Dispatcher Suzanne Dicken received the Patrol’s 2026 Telecommunications Award at the Athens Dispatch Center. Dicken joined the Patrol in 1984 and has served at the Athens and Jackson dispatch centers. An Athens native and Athens High School graduate, she was chosen by sworn officers and dispatchers for her technical job knowledge, work attitude, teamwork and prompt, courteous response to the public, according to the announcement.
Dicken is now in the running for the District and State Dispatcher of the Year awards. Between them, the two Athens honorees span more than four decades of Patrol service in southeast Ohio — Dicken’s career beginning in 1984, Wallingford’s in 2022 — and both now wait on the district-level decisions still to come.
Both Athens honors are peer-driven awards: Wallingford was selected by the troopers at his post, and Dicken was chosen by the sworn officers and dispatchers she supports, according to the announcement. The Athens Post serves Athens County and the surrounding southeast Ohio area, where its troopers patrol the state routes and highways and its dispatchers staff the center that sends them.
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