Meet the Visionary Minds Shaping Our Future Direction
Together, we pave the way for a safer, more secure future, inspired by the core values that define us. Join us in meeting the trailblazers who shape the future of public safety at The Knowledge Lab.
Chief Shon F. Barnes, Madison Police Department
Shon F. Barnes was hired as Madison Police Department's Chief of Police by the Police and Fire Commission (PFC) in February of 2021. Chief Barnes is a nationally recognized leader in crime reduction and community-police relations. He was previously the Director of Training and Professional Development for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability in Chicago, Illinois. Chief Barnes was the Deputy Chief of Police in Salisbury, North Carolina (2017-2020) and a Captain with the Greensboro Police Department (NC) where he began his career as a patrol officer in the fall of 2000. Chief Barnes was honored as a National Institute of Justice, LEADS Scholar, for using innovative technology to reduce crime and is a council member on the National Police Foundation's Council on Policing Reforms and Race. The council is a nonpartisan initiative which uses research and evidence to consider and offer recommendations to resolve some of the most pressing issues regarding police reform. Throughout his career Chief Barnes has implemented Neighborhood Oriented Policing which focuses on smaller police beat response, police neighborhood ownership, and community engagement at levels within the organization.
Chief Barnes attended Elizabeth City State University (Elizabeth City, North Carolina) where he received a B.A. Degree in History/Pre-Law, and the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio) where he received a master's degree in Criminal Justice. He has earned a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (Greensboro, North Carolina).
Chief Shon F. Barnes
Rebecca Boatright, General Counsel and Executive Director of Analytics and Research, Seattle Police Department
Rebecca Boatright serves as General Counsel to the Chief and oversees the Bureau of Risk Management and Legal Affairs, which includes the Performance Analytics and Research Section and the Audit, Public Disclosure, and Litigation Support Units.
Becca graduated from The College of Wooster (Wooster, OH) and received both her Ph.D. (1999) and J.D. (2002) from the University of Washington. She has completed executive leadership courses in driving government performance at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and is a 2018 graduate of the Police Executive Research Forum's Senior Management Institute for Police. She is a member of the Legal Officers Sections of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Major Cities Chiefs Association.
Rebecca Boatright
Rodney Bryant, President, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE)
Rodney Bryant, a more than 15-year member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, is the organization’s 46th national president. He previously served as first vice president and second vice president, as well as sergeant-at-arms for both the national office and the Georgia Chapter. He also served as the planning committee chair for the 2017 Annual Exhibit Training and Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. He joined the Atlanta Police Department in 1988. During his career, he climbed the ranks, serving as a patrol officer, senior police, sergeant, lieutenant, assistant commander and major. Highlights of his career include leading the command of Super Bowl LIII in 2019 and the College Football Playoff Championship in 2018. He retired in 2022 as the 25th chief of the department.
In alignment with 21st Century Policing, which asserts that law enforcement agencies must be well-trained and sensitive to the needs of the communities they serve to be effective, Bryant supports training that is tailored for each agency. He is also committed to bold leadership with respect to reducing gun violence, addressing the issue of missing and murdered women and children of color, and law enforcement recruitment with an eye toward middle management and mentoring for leadership.
Bryant earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Georgia State University and a master’s degree in administration at Central Michigan University. Additionally, he is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Executive Institute and is an active member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Major Cities Chief Association (MCCA), the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police (GACP), Atlanta Metropol, Inc., and the Atlanta Urban Area Security Initiative.
Rodney Bryant
Christine M. Cole, Consultant
Christine M. Cole is a self-employed criminal justice consultant who previously served as Executive Director of the Crime and Justice Institute for eight years. As Executive Director, Christine oversaw a team of over 50 working to increase safety and justice, reduce the reliance on incarceration, and instill cost effective and research-based practices in over two dozen states.
Prior to her role at CJI, Christine was the Executive Director of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School. Christine co-chaired and facilitated the NIJ funded Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety from 2008-2014. The group produced 20 original papers drawing from confidential conversations at Harvard Kennedy School.
Christine is one of three authors of the often-cited 2008 study of the Los Angeles Consent Decree and the study of the response to the Boston Marathon bombings called Why Was Boston Strong? Christine also served as Chief of Staff for the Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety, the governor’s policy advisor for criminal justice and homeland security. She previously worked in two municipal police agencies in Massachusetts as a Community Liaison/Policy Advisor and later as Director of Business and Technology.
Christine has presented and taught to audiences in the US and abroad on community corrections, police-community engagement, coordinated crisis response of government agencies, and linking safety and justice reform to good governance.
Christine M. Cole
Gary Cordner, Academic Director, Education and Training Section, Baltimore Police Department
Gary Cordner is the Academic Director in the Education and Training Section of the Baltimore Police Department. Most recently he served as Chief Research Advisor for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) LEADS Scholars Program.
He was a CALEA Commissioner (Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) and has long been associated with the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. He is Professor Emeritus at Eastern Kentucky University, where he served as Dean of the College of Justice & Safety.
Earlier in his career, he was a police officer and police chief in Maryland and obtained his Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
Gary Cordner
Karen Freeman-Wilson, President & CEO, Chicago Urban League
Karen Freeman-Wilson began serving as President and CEO of the Chicago Urban League in January 2020. She brings a passion for equity and social justice to the organization, which works to advance economic, educational, and social progress for African Americans through direct service and advocacy. Having served in the public arena most of her professional life, Freeman-Wilson has deep experience in addressing issues that impact urban communities. She was mayor of her hometown of Gary, Indiana, from 2012 through 2019. She was the first female to lead the city of Gary and the first Black female mayor in Indiana. Her mayoral accomplishments include job creation, completion of a $100 million airport runway relocation, and the development of key areas in the city.
Freeman-Wilson previously served as Indiana Attorney General, Director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, and presiding judge of the Gary City Court. She also served as Executive Director of the National Drug Court Institute and CEO of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, where she is currently Board Chair. Freeman-Wilson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She is a past
President of the National League of Cities, past Chairperson of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and sits on the National Policing Institute Board of Directors; Center for Community Progress Board of Directors. She is a member of Israel C.M.E. Church; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; the Links, Inc.; the NAACP; the Urban League of Northwest Indiana and the Indiana Bar.
Karen Freeman-Wilson
Al Gerhardstein, Civil Rights Attorney, Friedman, Gilbert and Gerhardstein
Alphonse A. Gerhardstein is a civil rights attorney in Ohio who has been litigating since 1976. While he is best known nationally as lead counsel for James Obergefell in the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision Obergefell v. Hodges, he has been an advocate on behalf of prisoners, victims of police misconduct and women seeking reproductive freedom throughout his career, in addition to LGBTQ causes like same-sex marriage. He has recovered millions of dollars and secured substantial reforms for victims of official misconduct. He is also the founder of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a nonprofit agency that advocates and litigates for criminal justice reform.
Al Gerhardstein
Daniel Greene, Executive Director, NAFTO
Daniel Greene is the Executive Director of the National Association of Field Training Officers (NAFTO). Prior to that appointment, Greene served six years as an elected executive board member of NATFO as well as eight years as Vice President of the Arizona Chapter.
Greene has developed course material and presentations for Standardized Evaluations, Adult Learning, Leadership, Ethics and Officer Safety, as well as developed and taught courses for introductory Field Training Schools, Advanced Field Training, and Field Training Unit Management.
Greene has also enjoyed the opportunity to present classes for local, county, and state law enforcement across the American Southwest, as well as US Army civilian police, civilian employees, sheriff staff, detention centers, and supervisors.
In 2017 Greene received the ILEETA International Law Enforcement Instructor of the Year award.
Daniel Greene
Brian Grisham, Deputy Director, IADLEST
Brian Grisham, Esq. is the Deputy Director of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) and has been a member since 1998.
In 2016 he was elected President and has served on the executive board for many years. He retired as the longest-serving Director of the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy (TLETA) and Executive Secretary of the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission in January of 2022 having served in those roles since April 2005. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Director since 1997.
In addition to instructional and administrative duties at the academy, he has served as an investigator and legal advisor to the P.O.S.T. Commission.
He has served as assistant to the Commissioner and staff attorney for the Tennessee Department of Safety. Grisham received his law degree from the Nashville School of Law in 1989 and his B.S. from Middle Tennessee State University in 1984. Grisham’s law enforcement experience includes service with the Department of Safety’s Criminal Investigations Division, MTSU Police Department, and prior service with TLETA.
He has been a licensed attorney since 1989 and has training certifications in criminal law, firearms instruction, asset forfeiture, police management, and courtroom security. Grisham serves as a member of the Tennessee Public Safety Network providing training and critical incident stress debriefing and peer support, and is a member of the Tennessee Voices for Victims Advisory Council.
He is a graduate of the Tennessee Government Executive Institute and the FBI National Law Institute. In 2011, Grisham was appointed to the Governor’s Subcabinet for Public Safety and in 2020 was given a leadership role in the Governor’s Law Enforcement Reform Task Force.
Brian Grisham
John Hollway, Associate Dean and Lecturer in Law, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
John F. Hollway is Associate Dean and Executive Director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His research helps organizations confront challenges and turn negative occurrences into opportunities for quality improvement. He is a national thought leader on the use of root cause analysis in criminal justice and is a frequent consultant to criminal justice agencies and corporations on quality improvement and measurement issues.
John is the author of numerous publications, including Conviction Review Units: A National Perspective (2016), A Systems Approach to Preventing Errors in Criminal Justice (2014), and Killing Time: An 18-Year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom, winner of the National Independent Book Award for non-fiction in 2011, and one of the Chicago Sun-Times’ Best Books of the Year. Hollway holds a BA from Penn in Diplomatic History with a minor in East Asian Studies, a JD with honors from the George Washington University Law School, and a MAPP degree with Distinction from Penn.
John Hollway
Cynthia Lum, Professor of Criminology, Law, and Society and Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University
Dr. Cynthia Lum is a leading authority on evidence-based policing, an approach that advocates that research, evaluation, and scientific processes should have “a seat at the table” in law enforcement policymaking and practice. She has studied and written extensively about patrol operations and police crime prevention activities, police technology, investigations and detective work, and evidence-based crime policy. Additionally, she has developed numerous tools and strategies to translate and institutionalize research into everyday law enforcement operations. For her efforts, she received the 2020 Virginia State Council for Higher Education Outstanding Faculty Award.
Professor Lum is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Criminology. She is an appointed member of the Committee on Law and Justice (CLAJ) for the National Academies of Sciences (NAS), and has served on the NAS’s ad hoc committees on Proactive Policing and Evidence to Advance Reform in the Global Security and Justice Sectors. She is an appointed member of the Council on Criminal Justice's Policing Task Force, a Board Director for the National Police Foundation, and has served numerous elected and appointed positions within the American Society of Criminology.
She is the founding editor of Translational Criminology Magazine and was the first North American Editor for the Oxford Journal Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. Dr. Lum is a Fulbright alum and is the co-Founder/Director of the International Summer School for Policing Scholarship, developed with Nick Fyfe at the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and with partners at Arizona State University.
Her recent book with Christopher Koper, Evidence-Based Policing: Translating Research Into Practice (Oxford University Press), received the American Society of Criminology Division of Policing 2020 Outstanding Book Award. Professors Lum and Koper are the Editors-In-Chief of Criminology and Public Policy, the flagship policy journal of the American Society of Criminology.
Cynthia Lum
Susan Manheimer, Retired Chief of Police, San Mateo Police Department
Chief Manheimer most recently served as the Interim Chief of Police, Oakland Police Department, and previously served as Chief of Police in San Mateo, California. Before leading the agency in San Mateo, she served for almost 17 years with the San Francisco Police Department. Chief Manheimer has served as a leader and past president of the California Police Chiefs Association and the San Mateo County Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association. She is a longtime member of the Police Executive Research Forum, an Executive Fellow at the nationally recognized Police Foundation and was honored to have been selected to participate in the most recent Executive Sessions on Policing at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
A long-time member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, Chief Manheimer has advocated for increased public investments in early childhood education and after-school programs to promote student literacy and prevent high school dropout.
Susan Manheimer
Maureen McGough, Chief of Strategic Initiatives, Policing Project, New York University School of Law
Prior to her position at the Policing Project, Maureen was at the National Police Foundation, where she oversaw the non-profit’s research, training, and technical assistance efforts as Director of National Programs. Previously, Maureen spent a decade with the federal government in various roles with the US Department of Justice and US Department of State. She served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Justice – the USDOJ’s research, development, and evaluation agency – where she led agency efforts to advance evidence-based policing, improve the
representation of women in policing, and implement systems-level criminal justice reform initiatives.
Additional federal experience includes serving as counsel on terrorism prevention to the Deputy Attorney General, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and coordinator for federal AIDS relief efforts through the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda. Maureen is a member of the FBI’s Law Enforcement Education and Training Council, an executive board member for the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing and is a recent public leadership executive fellow with the Brookings Institution.
Maureen is an attorney and earned her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Maureen McGough
Randy Means, Attorney, Randy Means & Associates, LLC
Randy Means is the principal in Randy Means & Associates, LLC, a Virginia corporation headquartered in Norfolk. Means is a nationally recognized expert in police law, leadership, accountability and systems.
Many years in-house counsel to a major city police department, former department head at a state law enforcement training center, and past head of the national association of law enforcement legal advisors, Means has provided legal and risk management services to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, including many of the largest and highest regarded, helping to solve the most complex and sensitive problems in American law enforcement. Means has trained over a half-million law enforcement officials, including tens of thousands of police leaders, and has worked for many dozens of risk and insurance management pools, police academies, professional associations, and almost every major provider of law enforcement training.
Means has written two books and has over 100 published articles on police law, risk management, and leadership. He has also managed the Chief’s Counsel column for Police Chief magazine and has written the law and risk management column for Law & Order magazine. Means has spoken at ten IACP annual conferences and has appeared on both the Law Enforcement Television Network and the FBI Training Network. His work has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal and featured on 60 Minutes.
Randy Means
Paul Noel, Chief of Police, Knoxville Police Department
Paul Noel was sworn in as Knoxville’s 27th Chief of Police on June 13, 2022. Prior to assuming command of the Knoxville Police Department, Noel was a Deputy Superintendent at the New Orleans Police Department, where he served in numerous leadership roles for over 25 years. While at NOPD, Noel developed a reputation as a successful and ethical leader committed to a community-focused approach to problem solving that builds trust and legitimacy, reduces crime, demands accountability, and maintains a highly-motivated workforce.
From May 2020 until his departure from the NOPD, Noel served as the Chief of Detectives, where he oversaw the supervision of over 200 sworn detectives responsible for all follow-up investigations. In that role, he reorganized a Homicide Division that had a 36% solve rate, initiating significant culture changes within the Homicide Division that resulted in the solve rate increasing to 54%. Noel also implemented quarterly “Next of Kin” community meetings for homicide victims’ families to improve communications with those families and the NOPD and assist those families through the healing process.
Paul Noel
Aqeela Sherrills, Co-Founder, Community Based Public Safety Collective
Aqeela Sherrills is a spirit-centered organizer and activist who has worked for three decades to promote community ownership of public safety and facilitate healing from violence in marginalized communities. A nationally recognized expert in victim service and community-based public safety, Aqeela has created and led multi-million-dollar nonprofit organizations focused on reducing violence and fostering safety in urban communities and advised The International Association of Chiefs of Police. Currently, Aqeela is the Co-Founder and leader of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective. This work builds on his work with The Newark Community Street Team community-based violence reduction initiative which he co-created and directed at the request of Newark, NJ’s Mayor Ras Baraka in 2014. In the five years Aqeela led NCST, Newark homicide rate went from 104 in 2015 to 51 in 2019.
Aqeela’s dedication to ending violence and promoting community-based public safety began in Watts, Los Angeles, where he joined the Grape Street Crips before fleeing the violence in his community to attend college.
At age 19, Aqeela and Hall of Fame NFL star Jim Brown co-founded the Amer-I-Can Program, Inc. to heal gang violence in cities across the country by empowering individuals to overcome behavior that negatively influenced their lives. During that time, Aqeela was the chief architect of a historic truce between the Crips and Bloods in Watts. That ceasefire began to fray because of the deep underlying conditions that bred crime, drugs, and violence. Aqeela and his brothers created the Community Self-Determination Institute in 1999 to tackle those personal and social issues, including healing communities’ post (and present) traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Aqeela launched The Reverence Project in 2007 to make meaning from his own son’s death. TRP brings together activists, healers, and artists in urban “war zones” to shift the culture from violence, shame, guilt, and fear into one rooted in forgiveness, compassion, reverence, and truth. In 2012, Aqeela became a lead organizer for Californians for Safety and Justice, building a network of 10,000+ crime survivors in California to improve public safety by placing more responsibility for public safety in community hands. In 2017, he became the National Training Director of The Alliance for Safety and Justice’s Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice Initiative. Aqeela serves as the Senior Advisor to the Alliance for Safety and Justice’s Shared Safety Initiative, and is a member of the Board of Directors of The Alliance for Safety and Justice, and Chairman of the Board of the Newark Community Street Team.
Aqeela Sherrills
John Paul Smith, Executive Assistant and Chief of Staff, AFL-CIO
John Paul (JP) Smith is the Executive Assistant and Chief of Staff to the AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer where he oversees the management of the federation's administrative departments and organizational finances. Smith is a 3rd generation trade unionist with experience in multiple sectors of the economy. Before joining the AFL-CIO he worked in government advocacy with the United Steelworkers union. His labor advocacy began with the USW nearly twenty years ago at his home local, USW Local 7-669, in Metropolis, IL where he spent approximately twelve years as a nuclear process operator and local union officer. He was the first International Coordinator of the USW’s Next Generation young workers program. Smith led the USW's government affairs and policy work in the transportation, chemical, refining, and nuclear sectors. He is also a former police officer and has been a national labor leader on police reform leading the AFL-CIO's efforts on responsible policing and accountability. The AFL-CIO, through its affiliate unions, represents approximately 400,000 law enforcement officers across the United States. The most recent publication on the Federation's efforts, The AFL-CIO's Public Safety Blueprint for Change, in which Smith was one of the primary authors.
John Paul Smith
Jonathan M. Smith, Senior Special Counsel for Criminal Legal System Reform, The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
Jonathan M. Smith is the Senior Special Counsel. Before, he was executive director of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. Immediately prior to joining the Committee, Mr. Smith was the Associate Dean of Experiential and Clinical Programs at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
Mr. Smith was the Chief of the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2010 to 2015. The Section was responsible for pattern or practice investigations of civil rights violations by law enforcement, correctional, juvenile justice, and mental health and developmental disability agencies. Under his leadership, the Section conducted the civil investigation of the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department following the death of Michael Brown. Prior to his government services, Mr. Smith was the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, Maryland, and the D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project. In each of these positions, in addition to providing program leadership, he has handled individual, class action and impact litigation, engaged in legislative advocacy and in institutional reform efforts. He started his career as an associate to Virginia civil rights lawyer Victor Glasberg.
Jonathan M. Smith
What the Field is Thinking
“Amidst the evolving challenges facing 21st century law enforcement, addressing public safety is more complex than ever. For law enforcement leaders and innovators, the validated, strategic resources the Knowledge Lab offers are invaluable.”
Becca Boatright
General Counsel and Executive Director, Analytics and Research, Seattle Police Department
"The training provided by the Knowledge Lab was invaluable for our officers. It equipped them with cutting-edge insights into law enforcement leadership and constitutional policing practices that are crucial in today’s challenging times. We look forward to future collaborations to enhance our department's capabilities."
Chief Troy Doyle
Ferguson Police Department
"As the profession of policing evolves, police leaders need access to up-to-date information on the best practices and most innovative strategies being implemented across the country. The Knowledge Lab facilitates continuous learning among law enforcement agencies and police leaders, enhancing the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of police services."