BJA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Training and Technical Assistance Specialist
Job Titles:
- Grants Management Specialist
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Attorney
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Assistant Attorney General
Amy L. Solomon serves as the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Nominated by President Biden and confirmed by a bipartisan vote of the Senate on April 18, 2023, Amy leads the Justice Department's principal funding, research, and statistical component, overseeing about $5 billion annually in grants and other resources to support state, local and tribal criminal and juvenile justice activities and victim service programs. Prior to her confirmation, Amy served as OJP's Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General since May 2021.
Before 2021, Amy was Vice President of Criminal Justice at Arnold Ventures, where she launched and led a corrections reform portfolio, which aimed to transform the culture of prisons; spark a fundamental shift in the focus of community supervision from catching failure to promoting success; and expand economic opportunities for people with a criminal record. Amy actively collaborated with other philanthropies, serving on the Executive Committee of the Criminal Justice Funders Forum and the founding Clean Slate Advisory Board.
From 2010 to 2017, Amy served as director of policy for OJP and as senior advisor to OJP's Assistant Attorney General. She worked to shape, launch, and implement a broad range of domestic policy initiatives focused on criminal justice reform, urban policy, and building trust between the justice system and communities of color. Amy was also executive director of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, a cabinet-level body established by President Obama comprising more than 20 federal agencies. The Council spearheaded the federal Ban the Box rule, fair housing guidance, the Second Chance Pell initiative and Medicaid guidance for the justice-involved population.
Amy previously spent 10 years at the Urban Institute, directing projects relating to prisoner reentry and public safety. She also worked at OJP's National Institute of Justice where she developed community crime-reduction and reentry initiatives. In addition, Amy has managed a community service program for justice-involved individuals; developed reentry strategies for a state department of correction; and worked with juveniles in probation, halfway house, and school settings.
Amy has served on numerous advisory councils and boards, helping shape innovative approaches to criminal justice challenges in collaboration with policymakers and practitioners, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, and the advocacy community. She holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Learning and Development Lead
Job Titles:
- National Public Safety Partnership ( PSP )
Job Titles:
- Supervisory Senior Policy Advisor
Job Titles:
- Corrections Officer Safety and Wellness Center
- Grants Management Specialist ( State Policy Advisor )
- Innovative Responses to Behavior in the Community: Swift, Certain, and Fair Supervision
Job Titles:
- Lead Financial Specialist
Job Titles:
- Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Brent J. Cohen was designated by Attorney General Merrick Garland to serve as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs in May 2023. He helps set policy and programmatic priorities for the Department of Justice's largest grantmaking component, shaping $5 billion in funding to support state, local and tribal efforts to advance community safety, reform the criminal and juvenile justice systems, and assist those impacted by crime. Prior to this designation, Brent served as OJP's Chief of Staff beginning in November 2021.
Brent previously served as the Vice President for Youth Engagement at the Center for American Progress and as the Executive Director of Generation Progress, CAP's young adult engagement arm. Before joining CAP, Brent served as the Vice President and Interim CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to cutting the U.S. correctional population in half by empowering the people most affected by incarceration to drive policy change.
This is Brent's second time working in federal government; he was appointed by President Obama to the prestigious White House Fellows Program, and later served as a Senior Advisor in OJP's Office of the Assistant Attorney General. At OJP, he led and contributed to a number of efforts to advance criminal and juvenile justice reform, with a focus on eliminating racial disparities and reducing incarceration for children and young adults.
Before coming to DC, Brent worked for the New York City Departments of Correction and Probation. He was the Director of Legislative and Government Affairs for the New York City Department of Probation, where he helped pass several pieces of state legislation to implement the department's ambitious reform agenda, including the landmark Close to Home Act, which realigned juvenile justice services from the state to the city and significantly reduced the number of young people in secure care. Brent also led implementation of the Neighborhood Opportunity Network, or NeON, which transformed the community supervision model in New York City into one that was community-focused and responsive to the needs of people on probation.
Brent began his career as a teacher in South Los Angeles. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master's in public administration from New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Job Titles:
- Management & Program Analyst
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director
- SMART Staff Member
- Deputy Director of the SMART Office for the U.S. Department of Justice
Dawn Doran serves as the Deputy Director of the SMART Office for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Ms. Doran's responsibilities include working with the staff and federal partners to administer the standards for the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) for the 50 states, five principal U.S. territories, the District of Columbia and approximately 170 federally recognized tribes. Ms. Doran also provides training and technical assistance on matters related to sex offender registration, notification and other sex offender management issues to the SORNA jurisdictions as well as to national, state and local government entities and advocacy organizations.
Prior to joining the SMART Office in 2008, Ms. Doran served as the Deputy Director of the National District Attorneys Association's (NDAA) Child Abuse Programs, including the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse in Alexandria, Virginia, and the National Child Protection Training Center in Winona, Minnesota. In this capacity, she managed and supervised activities and operations of the two Centers and their staffs; provided training and technical assistance to prosecutors, law enforcement, child protection workers, social workers, medical personnel and other allied criminal justice professionals engaged in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse, neglect and exploitation cases; and authored or contributed to numerous child abuse publications, among them the "Investigation and Prosecution of Child Abuse," Third Edition. Ms. Doran also worked extensively with the media on child abuse issues.
Ms. Doran formerly served NDAA as Interim Program Manager of the National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center, where she oversaw the development of the first Jumpstart resource training manual for newly assigned juvenile prosecutors. She also served as the Senior Attorney and Acting Director of the National Traffic Law Center, where she was responsible for creating a new program entitled Protecting Lives, Saving Futures.
Prior to her service at NDAA, Ms. Doran was an Assistant District Attorney General in Memphis, Tennessee, where she tried a wide variety of cases, up to and including capital litigation. She served as co-chairman of the Sex Offenders Registry Violation Unit and was a member of the Domestic Violence Unit, the Child Physical and Sexual Abuse Warrant Review Unit, and the Child Fatality Review Team. Additionally, she served as the district attorney liaison to the Citizens Crime Commission.
Ms. Doran received her B.S., with high honors, in Public/Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Martin and her JD, with honors in Dispute Resolution, from the University of Tennessee. She is a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar, the Tennessee State Bar and the Virginia State Bar.
Job Titles:
- Firearm Locks and Safe Storage
- Regional Information Sharing Systems ( RISS )
- Sentinel Events
- State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Information Sharing Technical Assistance Program ( SLTT )
Job Titles:
- Supervisory Grants Management Specialist
Job Titles:
- National Decertification Index Database
- Officer Safety and Wellness / VALOR
Job Titles:
- Grants Management Specialist ( State Policy Advisor )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the SMART Leadership Team
- SMART Staff Member
In January 2023, President Biden appointed the Hon. Helena Heath to serve as Director of the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART Office). Ms. Heath directs the grant making and policy work of the SMART Office, which administers $20 million in grants annually and works with federal partners to implement the standards for the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) for the 50 states, five principal U.S. territories, the District of Columbia and approximately 160 tribes.
Ms. Heath has 33 years of public service legal experience. In 2005, she was appointed an Albany City Court Judge, becoming the first woman of African descent to serve in the position in the city's 319-year history. She was elected in November 2005 to a full term of office and re-elected in 2011 and 2017. After serving on the bench for 16 years, Ms. Heath retired from state service to pursue federal government service in Washington, D.C.
As a city court judge, Ms. Heath presided over trials and proceedings in the Criminal, Civil and Traffic parts of the court. She implemented the first DWI court in Albany, New York, and had a lead role in creating user-friendly court practices to implement the eviction moratorium provision of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and related state laws.
Before ascending to the bench, she served as a court attorney at the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state; an Assistant Attorney General in the Litigation Bureau of the New York State Department of Law; an Assistant Counsel to the New York State Department of Economic Development; a Law Guardian representing children in Albany County Family Court; and a Senior Counsel for the New York State Assembly Speaker.
In 1994, Ms. Heath organized a local effort in Albany that resulted in the establishment of a Children's Center at Albany County Family Court. From 1995 to August 2022, she served as the founding chair of the center's advisory committee to ensure that children are cared for in a safe and nurturing environment while their families take care of court business. She has served for 15 years as a board member for the Capital Area Boys and Girls Clubs, in Upstate New York, and been involved for decades with organizations committed to the empowerment and mentorship of youth.
As co-chair of the Diversity and Gender Fairness Committee of the Capital District Women's Bar Association (New York), she coordinated programs for law students of color to expose them to a variety of career paths, share keys to becoming successful lawyers and explore how attorneys can overcome gender and racial barriers in the legal profession.
Ms. Heath graduated from New York University School of Law in 1987. She was awarded the prestigious Root-Tilden-Snow Scholarship based on her academic excellence and her commitment to public service law. She attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice and received her Bachelor of Science in 1984.
Job Titles:
- Supervisory Senior Policy Advisor
Job Titles:
- Student Computer Digital Forensics
Job Titles:
- Paralegal
- Paralegal Specialist
- Specialist
Jeanette Korab is a paralegal specialist in the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Ms. Korab joined SMART as a program specialist contractor working on tribal issues in 2013, before joining the federal workforce in 2019. At SMART, Ms. Korab handles communications and correspondence with jurisdictions working to implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) and tracks the annual legal requirements of all states, tribes and territories working on SORNA.
Prior to joining the SMART Office, Ms. Korab worked as a paralegal for a sole practitioner law firm in Maryland, whose practice included family law and criminal and personal injury cases. There, she prepared legal motions, orders, answers, subpoenas and correspondence. Ms. Korab performed case law and legal research, prepared discovery binders, filed court documents and interviewed witnesses.
Before her legal work, Ms. Korab had over a decade of experience at Verizon and taught early childhood education prior to that.
Ms. Korab earned her paralegal certification from Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, where she also studied early childhood education.
Job Titles:
- Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the OCOM Leadership Team
- Director of the Office of Communications
Jennifer M. Plozai is the Director of the Office of Communications at the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. She serves as the OJP principal executive overseeing communications and liaison with the public Congress, media and governmental and nongovernmental organizations.
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Project Director
Job Titles:
- Drug Data Research Center
Joel Dowling serves as a senior policy advisor in the SMART Office in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Mr. Dowling evaluates and assesses sex offender registration and notification systems in states and tribal jurisdictions to determine substantial implementation of Title I of the Adam Walsh Act, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). In addition, Mr. Dowling is the team lead for international matters and serves as the SMART Office's military liaison.
Prior to joining the SMART Office, Mr. Dowling served as an information systems analyst for the U.S. Department of State working in the U.S. Embassy to Morocco. While working for the Department of State, Mr. Dowling developed, tested and deployed mobile communication applications facilitating emergency communication between the embassy, the consulate and visiting American citizens.
Prior to the Department of State, Mr. Dowling served as an assistant district attorney for the Kings County District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, New York. While assigned to a general trial bureau, Mr. Dowling prosecuted offenses ranging from robbery and burglary to child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence. Mr. Dowling was later assigned to the Money Laundering and Revenue Crimes Department, where he conducted long-term investigations into tax fraud, counterfeiting and illicit substances.
During law school, Mr. Dowling was a student law clerk to the late Justice John T. Buckley, Presiding Justice of New York State's Appellate Division, First Department. Here, Mr. Dowling reviewed appellate briefs and drafted opinions on topics including the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and various commercial disputes. Mr. Dowling also served as a student law clerk in the New York County Supreme Court Matrimonial Term, Onondaga County Family Court and the Onondaga County Supreme Court.
Mr. Dowling received his B.S., magna cum laude, in information management and technology from Syracuse University and his J.D. from St. John's University School of Law. Mr. Dowling is a member of the New York Bar.
Job Titles:
- Bulletproof Vest Partnership ( BVP ) Program
- State Criminal Alien Assistance Program ( SCAAP )
Job Titles:
- Senior Policy Advisor
- Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing
Juli Ana Grant is a senior policy advisor for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) in the United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. She advises states and tribes on sex offender registration and notification and on matters related to sex offender management. Ms. Grant also leads the Tribal Training and Technical Assistance project that provides support and specialized training to tribes that are implementing sex offender registration programs and developing innovative ways to enhance community and registrar safety. In addition, Ms. Grant works on the Tribal Access Program, a collaborative project providing tribes with the ability to input critical biographic and biometric information on sex offenders to the National Crime Information Center. Prior to taking her position at SMART in 2010, Ms. Grant worked for the Department's Office on Violence Against Women, providing support to state coalitions combating sexual and domestic violence.
Before joining the Department of Justice, Ms. Grant was a program manager in the Sex Offense Management and Domestic Violence Programs and the Tribal Justice Exchange Project at the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) in the state of New York. She managed development and implementation of sex offense management programs, specialized sex offense courts and domestic violence courts. She also developed collaborative projects, coordinated grant writing for innovative approaches, trained advocates and other professionals, and participated in countywide and statewide management committees. As part of the Tribal Justice Exchange Project team, Ms. Grant helped ensure tribal communities had access to training and ongoing technical assistance about problem-solving community-based practices, and encouraged formal collaborations between traditional tribal justice systems and state and local court systems. In addition, she provided technical assistance to states on domestic violence issues to help design and develop protocols, research projects, service plans, resources and techniques for documenting results.
Prior to her position at CCI, Ms. Grant was a director of Safe Horizon's Brooklyn Criminal and Supreme Courts Programs and the Brooklyn Family Justice Center. In this capacity, Ms. Grant supervised staff providing crisis intervention and social services in the Brooklyn criminal courts, the King's County District Attorney's Office, the Red Hook Community Justice Center and the Family Justice Center. In addition, Ms. Grant oversaw the restitution program for victims of crime, as well as two child-care facilities that provided care for children with families involved in the criminal courts system. During her tenure, Ms. Grant expanded outreach to underserved communities and developed early intervention projects for domestic and sexual violence victims.
Ms. Grant began her career working in reproductive health. She then took a position at Legal Momentum working on judicial education around sexual violence and child sexual abuse. She was promoted to run Legal Momentum's outreach program, providing resources and information to the public, which inspired her continued work on victims' rights and services, offender accountability and how to make systems and courts be part of community safety solutions.
Job Titles:
- Grants Management Specialist
Prior to joining BJA, Karhlton served as the Executive Director of Ohio's Office of Criminal Justice Services where he oversaw state and federal grants for law enforcement, victim assistance, juvenile justice, crime prevention courts, anti-trafficking efforts, reentry, corrections programs, and traffic safety. In that role, he led Ohio's grantmaking operations, advising the governor and the director of the Department of Public Safety on criminal justice strategies. He also served as the facilitator for former Ohio Governor John Kasich's Task Force on Community-Police Relations, precursor of the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board, a multi-disciplinary panel that establishes standards for law enforcement agencies as part of the state's effort to strengthen community-police relations.
Job Titles:
- Grants Management Specialist
Job Titles:
- Illinois - State and Local
Job Titles:
- Acting Director
- Deputy Director
- Member of the BJS Leadership Team
- Principal
Principal Deputy Director Kevin M. Scott, PhD, currently serves as the head of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the primary statistical agency of the Department of Justice responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating statistics on crime, individuals who commit crimes, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. Dr. Scott has been with BJS since 2017 and brings a wealth of subject matter expertise, statistical knowledge, and management skills.
Job Titles:
- Improving Corrections Data Analysis - Virtual Academies
Job Titles:
- Supervisory Senior Policy Advisor
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director of the Office for Victims of Crime
Kristina Rose is the Director of the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where she oversees programs and services that support crime victims and survivors. Ms. Rose was appointed to this position by President Joe Biden, and sworn in on July 12, 2021. At OVC, she oversees nearly $9 billion in grant funding to provide vital compensation and assistance to persons impacted by crime. OVC also invests in new and innovative approaches to improving the criminal justice and community response to crime victimization and raises awareness of crime victim rights.
Prior to her OVC appointment, Ms. Rose was selected to serve on the Department of Defense Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military, where she led the Victim Care and Support effort.
Ms. Rose spent nearly 20 years at DOJ serving in numerous roles including as Deputy Director at OVC, as Acting Director and Deputy Director for the National Institute of Justice, and as the Chief of Staff for the Office on Violence Against Women. In 2016, Ms. Rose had the distinct privilege of working at the White House on detail as a Senior Policy Advisor on violence against women in the Office of Vice President Joe Biden. As Senior Policy Advisor, she provided expert advice and guidance on domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. She also coordinated the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and wrote a guide for college presidents on developing comprehensive plans to address campus sexual assault. In 2013, Ms. Rose spent 8 months as a victim advocate in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., working hands-on with victims of all violent crimes.
At DOJ, Ms. Rose initiated several ground-breaking projects including the first national survey to measure the crime of stalking in the United States; an action research project on untested sexual assault kits that produced national models for jurisdictions around the country; and a virtual training on sexual assault forensic exams with Dartmouth Medical School. Ms. Rose also led the development of the first National Sexual Assault TeleNursing Center, which provides virtual guidance to medical personnel conducting sexual assault forensic exams in rural and remote areas.
In between her periods of Federal service, Ms. Rose served in the nonprofit sector as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Healing Justice and as the Executive Director of End Violence Against Women International.
She holds an M.S. in criminal justice from Northeastern University and a B.A. in sociology from George Mason University.
Job Titles:
- Capital Case Litigation Initiative ( CCLI )
- Michigan - State and Local ( Other Than SW )
- Police - Prosecution Partnership Initiative
- STOP - School Violence Prevention & Mental Health Training / School Violence Threat ( West Region )
Job Titles:
- Grants Management Specialist
Job Titles:
- Center for Task Force Training ( CenTF )
Job Titles:
- Administrator
- Member of the OJJDP Leadership Team
Job Titles:
- Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence - Inventory, Tracking, and Reporting ( SAFE - ITR )
Job Titles:
- Senior Policy Advisor
- Senior Policy Advisor in Office of Sex Offender Sentencing
Marnie Dollinger is a senior policy advisor in Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. She assists states, the principal U.S. territories, and eligible Indian tribes in adopting the standards set out in the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Additionally, Ms. Dollinger is the team lead in matters related to sex offender risk assessment, organizational sexual abuse in religion and sport and re-entry for sex offenders in tribal communities.
Prior to joining the SMART Office in 2015, Ms. Dollinger was a behavioral analyst with the U.S. Marshals Service Behavioral Analysis Unit at the National Sex Offender Targeting Center. As a behavioral analyst, she provided behavioral investigative advice in the assessment of unknown subject sexual crimes and the location and apprehension of fugitive sexual offenders under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. She specialized in cold case crime scene reconstruction and its application to the behavioral motivations of violent offenders.
Before her work with the Department of Justice, Ms. Dollinger was a state program administrative director for the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, which serves civilly committed sexual offenders on two campuses. In her role, she served as both the director of behavioral analysis and a clinical supervisor, providing assessment, treatment planning, behavioral intervention planning and administrative security and policy.
In addition to working in the field of sex offender management, Ms. Dollinger received a master's degree in forensic science from National University in San Diego and dedicated much of her early career to death and crime scene reconstruction and forensic toxicology.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Operations and Management
Maureen A. Henneberg is the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Operations and Management, in the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. She has served in this role since February 2015, following a one-year term as Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General. In this position, she advises the Assistant Attorney General on management and operational issues, overseeing OJP's business offices, including the Office of the Chief Financial Officer; the Office of Administration; the Office of Audit, Assessment, and Management; the Office of the Chief Information Officer; the Office of Communications; and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity.
Before joining the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Maureen served for five years as Director of OJP's Office of Audit, Assessment, and Management. In this capacity, she led the review of OJP's critical financial processes, grants management activities and grant programs to ensure compliance and proper internal control and to promote integrity, accountability and sound stewardship and management of OJP's grant programs and operations.
Maureen was also a senior manager in OJP's Bureau of Justice Statistics, where she served as Deputy Director overseeing the office's planning, management and budget activities; publication and dissemination operations; and programs designed to improve crime information and statistics at state and local levels. She began her career with BJS in 1990 as a Presidential Management Intern and served in several capacities over her 18-year tenure, including as Acting Director; Associate Director of Planning, Management, and Budget; and Acting Chief of Criminal History Improvement Programs.
Maureen earned a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in judicial administration from American University in Washington, D.C., in 1990. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and minors in criminal justice and public administration from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1988.
Job Titles:
- Special Assistant to Deputy Director
Job Titles:
- Senior Policy Advisor
- Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing
Meghan McCarthy is a senior policy advisor for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Ms. McCarthy reviews and assesses sex offender registration and notification systems in states and tribal jurisdictions to determine substantial implementation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). She also assists with reviewing and analyzing federal and state sex offender registration and notification case law.
Prior to joining the SMART Office, Ms. McCarthy served as the manager for policy and governmental affairs at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Ms. McCarthy provided substantive assistance on NCMEC's legal affairs, including litigation, governance and internal policy issues, and provided advice and guidance on policy and legislation pertaining to NCMEC's mission. She assisted with NCMEC's advocacy efforts and lobbied the U.S. Congress on federal funding and issues concerning missing and exploited children, including child sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking. Her efforts helped lead to the passage of significant child protection and anti-trafficking legislation in the 115th Congress. Ms. McCarthy also provided technical assistance to members of Congress, state legislators, other governmental entities, and the public about issues related to missing and exploited children and helped NCMEC create policy positions about specific child protection issues.
Job Titles:
- Delaware - State
- Field - Initiated
- Grants Management Specialist
- Pennsylvania - State and Local West
- STOP - School Violence Prevention & Mental Health Training / School Violence Threat ( South Region )
Job Titles:
- Supervisory Grants Management Specialist
Job Titles:
- Program Specialist
- Program Specialist for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing
Michelle Arbeit is a program specialist for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Ms. Arbeit advises office leadership and staff on budget and financial administration, administrative management, program planning and contract matters.
Ms. Arbeit's work at the SMART Office includes support activities associated with the office's grant programs, as well as activities related to providing technical assistance to states, territories and federally recognized Indian tribes. In carrying out this work, she collaborates with both internal SMART staff and other OJP components to help ensure organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
Prior to joining the SMART Office, Ms. Arbeit served first as a program operations specialist and then as a grants management specialist for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. At NIJ, she managed the grant solicitation process, coordinated the Violence Against Women standing review panels, served as alternate contracting officer's representative and task manager for NIJ peer review and provided program and operations support. Ms. Arbeit also served as NIJ's federal designated representative for the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting Working Group, which developed best practices and protocols for the collection and processing of DNA evidence in sexual assault cases.
Ms. Arbeit earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of Rochester and a master's degree from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Strengthening the Medical Examiner - Coroner System
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the NIJ Leadership Team
In March 2022, President Biden appointed Nancy La Vigne, Ph.D., to be Director of OJP's National Institute of Justice. Dr. La Vigne was sworn in as Director on May 9, 2022. As head of NIJ, Dr. La Vigne leads the Justice Department's research, development and evaluation agency, overseeing a wide array of social science research projects, technology initiatives and forensic activities focused on improving public safety and ensuring the fairness and effectiveness of the justice system.
Dr. La Vigne is a nationally recognized criminal justice policy expert and nonprofit executive whose expertise ranges from policing and corrections reform to reentry, criminal justice technologies and evidence-based criminal justice practices. Her previous position was senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, where she served as executive director of the Council's Task Force on Policing. Prior to joining the Council on Criminal Justice, Dr. La Vigne served as vice president of justice policy at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit social policy research organization based in Washington, D.C. Over the course of a decade, she directed Urban's Justice Policy Center, leading a staff of more than 50 researchers and managing an annual departmental budget of about $10 million. From 2014 to 2016, she also served as executive director of the congressionally-mandated bipartisan Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections Reform.
Before being appointed as director of the Justice Policy Center in 2009, Dr. La Vigne served for eight years as a senior research associate at Urban, leading groundbreaking research on prison reentry. Prior to joining Urban, she was the founding director of the Crime Mapping Research Center at NIJ and was special assistant to OJP's Assistant Attorney General. She previously served as research director for the Texas sentencing commission. She was also recently a director on the board of the Consortium of Social Science Associations, served on the board of the Pretrial Justice Institute, was a member of the research advisory committee of the Correctional Association of New York and finished a term of service on the Policy Committee of the American Society of Criminology.
Dr. La Vigne holds a Ph.D. in criminal justice from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, a master's degree in public affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School at the University of Texas-Austin and a bachelor's degree in government and economics from Smith College.
Job Titles:
- Training and Technical Assistance Specialist
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the OA Leadership Team
- Director of the Office of Administration
Mr. Merkle is the Director of the Office of Administration. He has worked at OJP for over 15 years in various capacities, including Program Manager, Attorney Advisor, Senior Policy Advisor, and Grant Manager. During his tenure, he has had the opportunity to contribute to several OJP components including the Corrections Program Office; Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Community Capacity Development Office; and the Office of the General Counsel. Over the years, he has provided leadership and guidance in such areas as prisoner reentry, sex offender management, crime prevention initiatives such as Neighborhood Watch and Volunteers in Police Service, and nationwide service initiatives such as the White House's USA Freedom Corp. Prior to joining the Department of Justice in 1996, he was a practicing attorney in the State of Maryland specializing in criminal defense and family law. He was also a judicial clerk in the Circuit Court of Maryland for Prince George's County for 18 months. Mr. Merkle graduated from the University of Richmond with a double major in political science and criminal justice and the Catholic University School of Law in Washington, D.C., where he received his Juris Doctorate.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director for Grants and Administration for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing
- Associate Director, Grants and Administration
Portia F. Graham is the Associate Director for Grants and Administration for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) in the Office of Justice Programs (OJP). In this role, she assists the Director and staff in providing management and oversight of SMART Office grant programs, including the Adam Walsh Act Implementation Grant Program pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, the Comprehensive Approaches to Sex Offender Management Grant Program and the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website.
Prior to joining SMART in 2018, Portia was the director of the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) Office of Operations. As director of the Office of Operations from 2012-18, Portia oversaw the following: audit resolution and response, budget formulation and execution, compliance monitoring/risk management, conference cost reporting, data call management, grant forecasting/solicitation management, non-grants administration (contracts and reimbursable agreements), peer review management, reception center management/general support services, records management, simplified acquisitions (purchase card) management and training development and delivery.
Portia joined NIJ as a Scientific, Engineering and Technical Assistance contractor in 2002, joining the federal workforce in July 2004 as a program operations specialist in NIJ's Office of Science and Technology. In 2008, Portia was selected as the Associate Director, Grants and Administration for NIJ's Planning, Budget, Management and Administration division, under the Office of the Director, which eventually became the Office of Operations.
Before joining OJP, Portia managed the convention and conference programs for the National Mining Association, a trade association. As part of a project team, she helped to produce a quadrennial trade show and conference with more than 35,000 attendees.
The daughter of a Foreign Service officer, Portia has lived throughout the world, including posts in Okinawa (where she was born), Liberia and Morocco (where she graduated from high school). She received an A.B. in government from Colby College, Waterville, Maine.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant to Policy Office
Job Titles:
- Program Specialist
- Program Specialist With the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing
Samantha Opong is a program specialist with the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Ms. Opong manages SMART Office grant programs, including awards under the Adam Walsh Implementation Act grant program and the National Sex Offender Public Website grant program. In addition to managing grants, she works closely with the senior policy advisors assisting jurisdictions with the implementation of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Prior to joining the SMART Office, Ms. Opong served as a professional staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In this capacity, Ms. Opong assisted with hearing preparations through analytical research, written reports, and logistics coordination. She also worked as a staffer in a congressional office, where she developed and advanced legislation regarding social issues, making policy recommendations based on her experience as a social worker. She also organized panel discussions centered on the correlation between youth mental health and violence.
Prior to her time as a congressional staffer, Ms. Opong was a social worker, working with homeless families and victims of child and sexual abuse for more than nine years. Her work encompassed both direct services and policy formation. Ms. Opong began her career as a case manager for a homeless shelter in New York City, where she specifically worked with child victims of sexual abuse. Here, she developed educational programs for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Additionally, while working at the homeless shelter, Ms. Opong developed an aftercare program that helped former homeless families adjust and reintegrate into their communities, reducing their chances of becoming unhoused again.
Ms. Opong earned a B.A. in sociology from the State University at Stony Brook and a Master of Social Work from Howard University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director for Policy for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing
- Associate Director, Policy
Scott G. Matson is the Associate Director for Policy for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Mr. Matson oversees the office's work in assisting all states, principal U.S. territories, eligible Indian tribes and the District of Columbia on adopting the standards of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). In addition, he leads the Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative and other research related projects for the office. Mr. Matson also provides training and technical assistance on sex offender registration, notification and other sex offender management issues to the SORNA jurisdictions and to national, state and local government entities and advocacy organizations.
Prior to joining the SMART Office in 2009, Mr. Matson served in a variety of roles focused on improving criminal justice policies and practices. As a program manager at the JEHT Foundation, he developed and managed a criminal justice portfolio of more than 60 grantees on issues such as sentencing and corrections policy, reentry, wrongful convictions and the death penalty. Mr. Matson was the Associate Director, Policy of the Vera Institute of Justice's Center on Sentencing and Corrections, providing state policymakers assistance to improve criminal justice practices while reducing costs. Mr. Matson served as a research associate at the Center for Effective Public Policy's Center for Sex Offender Management where he provided training and technical assistance to a wide range of international, national, state and local audiences on sex offender management issues. Mr. Matson began his career at the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, where he evaluated a series of criminal and juvenile justice policies and programs and presented the findings to the Washington State Legislature. Mr. Matson earned an M.A. in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Maryland, College Park and a B.A. in sociology from Western Washington University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
Job Titles:
- Grants Management Specialist ( State Policy Advisor )
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to Policy Office
- Executive Assistant, Policy Office
Job Titles:
- Senior Policy Advisor in the SMART Office for the U.S. Department of Justice
Stephanie Carrigg serves as a Senior Policy Advisor in the SMART Office for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Ms. Carrigg assesses sex offender registration and notification management systems in states and tribal jurisdictions to determine substantial implementation of Title I of the Adam Walsh Act, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Ms. Carrigg is the team lead on reviewing matters specific to juvenile sex offender registration. She also provides training on sex offender registration and notification to federal, state, tribal and local government agencies.
Ms. Carrigg previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the SMART Office from April 2009-December 2012. Prior to rejoining the SMART staff, Ms. Carrigg was an Assistant General Counsel for Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA). As an Assistant General Counsel, Ms. Carrigg handled a variety of employment, ethics, privacy and tort matters. In addition, Ms. Carrigg served as a legal advisor to CSOSA's Sex Offense Registry Unit, which handles the registration of all District sex offenders.
Ms. Carrigg previously served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia. As an Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Carrigg prosecuted juvenile cases and represented the District in post-adjudication juvenile matters. In addition, Ms. Carrigg was a staff attorney at the National District Attorneys' Association's (NDAA) National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center as well as at NDAA's Drug Prosecution and Prevention Program.
Ms. Carrigg served as a law clerk to the late Honorable William I. Cowin of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. She received her B.A., summa cum laude, in History and American Studies from Boston College, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Ms. Carrigg received her J.D., with honors in Litigation and Dispute Resolution, from Boston University School of Law, where she was a member of the Public Interest Law Journal. A Massachusetts native, Ms. Carrigg is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia bars.
Job Titles:
- Grants Management Specialist ( State Policy Advisor )
Job Titles:
- Supervisory Senior Policy Advisor
Job Titles:
- Senior Policy Advisor
- Senior Policy Advisor for the SMART Office
Yahya Fouz is a senior policy advisor for the SMART Office in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Mr. Fouz evaluates and assesses sex offender registration and notification management systems in states and tribal jurisdictions to determine substantial implementation of Title I of the Adam Walsh Act, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Mr. Fouz serves as the SMART Office lead on work with the Tribal Access Program (TAP), which provides tribal agencies direct access to national crime information databases. He oversees SMART Office efforts to develop and enhance registry management software and tools to assist jurisdictions in implementing information sharing and community notification requirements. Mr. Fouz provides training and technical assistance on sex offender registration, notification, information sharing and other related issues to federal, state, tribal and local government agencies. He also serves as the SMART Office legislative liaison. Previously, he was the legal specialist to the SMART Office, providing counsel on sex offender registry codes and related legislation.
Prior to joining the SMART Office, Mr. Fouz served as an assistant district attorney for the Bronx County District Attorney's Office. He prosecuted DNA-based prosecutions and a range of violent felonies in the Felony Trial Bureau, including gang-related shootings, home invasions and conspiracy to murder. Mr. Fouz also handled cases involving child victims and witnesses, including child endangerment and physical and sexual abuse.
Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Mr. Fouz served as staff attorney for the National District Attorney's Association's National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse. He assisted prosecutors from around the country on a variety of legal issues pertaining to child physical and sexual abuse, including shaken baby syndrome and computer-facilitated crimes against children.
During law school, Mr. Fouz was selected to serve as a judicial extern to the late Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court, reviewing appellate briefs and drafting bench memoranda on a variety of legal topics ranging from commercial paper to criminal sentencing guidelines. Mr. Fouz received his B.A. from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where he was a member of The Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Mr. Fouz is a member of both the Ohio and New York Bar.
Job Titles:
- Community Supervision Resource Center
- National Initiatives - Corrections