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Leadership: Keys to Leading Juvenile Justice Reform

The National Center for Youth in Custody (NC4YC) invites you to participate in a webinar on Leadership Development in Juvenile Justice.

The juvenile justice world of 2012 is in the midst of “downsizing” and/or closing institutions, reinvesting resources in community-based programs and realigning services for juvenile offenders from state to local jurisdictions. This is a time when leadership to successfully lead and manage these changes is required of all juvenile justice professionals.

This webinar is intended to develop and promote collaborative leadership and the capacity to transform organizational cultures to best serve the youth in our care and engage their families and the communities they return to in their rehabilitation.

Presentations will include:

1. Collaborative leadership
2. Role of leadership in culture change
3. Role of leadership in empowering youth and families in the rehabilitative process

This the second in an opening series of webinars that are aligned with the four priority service areas of NC4YC:

Strategic Priority #1: Promote an effective continuum of services for youth in restricted custody: juvenile detention, corrections and adult facilities. (View the first webinar held on March 7, 2012)

Strategic Priority #2: Develop and promote leadership and capacity to transform organizational cultures to best serve youth.

Strategic Priority #3: Ensure safe and healthy conditions of confinement.

Strategic Priority #4: Strengthen family, community and stakeholder engagement and partnership.

Moderator:

• Edward J. Loughran, Executive Director, Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA)

Welcome and Introductions:

• Morris Thigpen, Director, National Institute of Corrections

Presenters:

• Shay Bilchik, Director, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, Georgetown University
• Cherie Townsend, Executive Director, Texas Juvenile Justice Department
• Hasan Davis, Deputy Commissioner, Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice
• Brian Hancock, Director, Robins' Nest, Inc.

Shay Bilchik
Director, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown Public Policy Institute

Shay Bilchik is the founder and Director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.  The Center’s purpose is to advance a balanced, multi-systems approach to reducing juvenile delinquency that promotes positive child and youth development, while also holding youth accountable.  This work is carried out through the dissemination of papers on key topics; the sponsorship of symposia; Certificate Programs at Georgetown providing leaders with intensive learning opportunities and ongoing support in their systems improvement efforts; and multi-site demonstration projects.  Prior to joining the Institute on March 1, 2007, Mr. Bilchik was the President and CEO of the Child Welfare League of America, a position he held from February of 2000.  Prior to his tenure at CWLA, Shay headed up the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he advocated for and supported a balanced and multi-systems approach to attacking juvenile crime and addressing child victimization.  Before coming to the nation's capital, Mr. Bilchik was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami, Florida from 1977-1993, where he served as a trial lawyer, juvenile division chief, and Chief Assistant State Attorney.  Mr. Bilchik earned his B.S. and J.D. degrees from the University of Florida. 

Cherie Townsend
Executive Director, Texas Juvenile Justice Department

Cherie Townsend is the Executive Director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.  She was hired by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department Governing Board on January 6, 2012.  Prior to her appointment, she served as the Executive Director of the Texas Youth Commission.  She previously served as Director of Juvenile Justice Services (DJJS) of Clark County, Nevada and as the Director of Juvenile Court Services with the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County for over 12 years. She has more than 30 years experience as a juvenile justice practitioner.  Her perspective of juvenile justice systems has been influenced by her work with victims of violent crime as Director of the Victim/Witness Assistance Division for Travis County in the District Attorney’s office in Austin, Texas and by her work leading a Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) replication site. 

Ms. Townsend is an active member of the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, the American Correctional Association, the Suicide Prevention Resource Center Steering Committee, Council on Children and Families, The National Academy of Science’s Committee on Assessing Juvenile Justice Reform, and the Juvenile Justice Leadership Network.  She has been active in many professional associations throughout her career and has served in leadership positions with the National Association of Probation Executives, the American Probation and Parole Association and the ACA Commission on Accreditation for Corrections.   In 2001, the National Association of Probation Executives and Sam Houston State University awarded the Executive of the Year Award to Ms. Townsend. In 2003, she was recognized by the National Juvenile Court Services Association and received the Juvenile Court Administrator Award. In 2010 she was recognized as the Outstanding Juvenile Corrections Administrator by the Texas Corrections Association and as the Outstanding Administrator by the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators.  Ms. Townsend holds an M.B.A. from the University of Texas, an M.P.A. from Southern Methodist University, and a B.A. from Rockford College.

Hasan Davis
Acting Director, Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice

There was a time when the words that describe Hasan Davis would have been, delinquent, troublemaker or thug.  Determined to prove that his past failures would not be his only legacy, he earned his GED and relocated to Kentucky to attend Berea College.  Hasan earned his BA degree from Berea College and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law.  He has serviced as Director of the Lexington Youth Violence Prevention Project, Chair of the Kentucky Juvenile Justice Advisory Board, Vice Chair of the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice, Regional Board Representative on the Council of Educators of At-Risk and Delinquent Youth and earned a fellowship with the Rockefeller Foundation's Next Generation Leadership Program.

Today Hasan is Acting Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice and continues to be sought after as a speaker and presenter in the areas of education, juvenile justice and the arts, on the local, state and national level.

Brian Hancock
Deputy Director of Operations, Robins’ Nest Inc.

Brian Hancock is the deputy director of operations at Robins' Nest, a private, nonprofit 501(C)(3), children's services organization dedicated to ensuring the safety of children and enhancing their well-being in a family setting through a wide array of quality community-based residential and in-home services.  Prior to this position, Mr. Hancock, as Deputy Division Director for the New Jersey Division of Child Behavioral Health, was responsible for policy, research, training and planning for New Jersey’s child mental health system, which serves 40,000 children annually. Previously, he was a senior assistant child advocate in the New Jersey Office of the Child Advocate, where he oversaw the Office’s juvenile justice advocacy and was a principal investigator and author of the Office’s report on conditions for children with mental health needs in the state’s juvenile detention centers. Mr. Hancock has done humanitarian and advocacy work with at-risk and incarcerated youth across the United States, and in Mexico, Ireland and Ukraine. He has received several awards for his work; including the Embracing the Legacy award from the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps., and the Spirit of Crazy Horse award from Reclaiming Youth International. Mr. Hancock received a B.A., cum laude, from Wheaton College, and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law.