Bio

“I owe the opportunities that I’ve had in my career to the School of Criminal Justice.”  I’m sure many of us have thought that – giving credit to the excellent academic preparation that we benefited from at the School.  For me, that is true, but my career opportunities have a more serendipitous relationship to the School, as well.  Former School of Criminal Justice Dean Gottfredson once asked me to interview for a position with New Jersey’s Criminal Disposition Commission, which he chaired.  He said that since he already knew me (he was the Chair of my dissertation committee) , I would interview with the Vice Chair of the Commission.  I went to that interview and really hit off with the Vice Chair.  I declined the position, but we began a professional association that would change the course of my career.  That Vice Chair was Christie Whitman, who went on to become Governor.  I was asked to serve on her policy staff, ultimately becoming Deputy Chief of Policy.  Working at the epicenter of power in state government for a Governor who had been on the Board of NCCD and who had chaired the Sentencing Commission’s alternatives to incarceration committee was a dream.  Despite immense pressure to build more prisons, I had the opportunity to help craft policies and programs that resulted in New Jersey being one of the few states that has had a significant drop in its state prison population.  I have since gone on to direct New Jersey’s juvenile justice and child and adolescent mental health systems and two institutes at UMDNJ, but my experience working for Governor Whitman on progressive criminal justice policies was a very rewarding time in my career.  And I owe that opportunity to the School of Criminal Justice!