Ana M. Bermudez a Commissioner for the New York City Department of Probation (DOP), is the first openly gay and Latina Commissioner as well as being just the second woman appointed to this position. For over 20 years she has been a tireless advocate for children and teenagers involved in the justice system.

A graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School, Commissioner Bermudez began her professional career representing children in family court cases at the Legal Aid Society. She went on to work at CASES (Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services), holding progressively responsible positions as Director of Training and Technical Assistance, Co-Director of Community Prep High School (a transitional school for court-involved students), and Deputy Director for Court Services and Case Management at CASES' Court Employment Project (an alternative-to-incarceration program for adolescent felony offenders).

Prior to joining the DOP in 2010, she was the Director of Juvenile Justice Programs at the Children's Aid Society. She then became DOP's Deputy Commissioner of Juvenile Operations (2010-2014), successfully leading city-wide initiatives that focused on improving outcomes for court-involved youth through interdisciplinary collaborations. Her work has given her considerable experience in developing and implementing strengths-based interventions, applying restorative and youth development practices, and designing programs that ensure successful re-integration for adjudicated juveniles.

Since her appointment as Commissioner in March 2014, she has continued to lead the Department in its mission to enhance public safety through appropriate, individualized, and community-based interventions in the lives of people on probation to enable them to permanently exit the justice system.

Maria Cardiellos has over 30 years of experience—both nationally and internationally—in public safety and justice program development, implementation, and evaluation. She currently supports the IJIS Institute as its Director of Operations. In this capacity, she oversees overall operations, which include numerous national initiatives, and is responsible for the financial management of the Institute's national programs. Functional areas of responsibility include strategic planning, account management, business development, resource management, national standards implementation enablement, and technology support.

Prior to this role, Cardiellos held the position of Senior Program Manager at IJIS and supported several key initiatives including the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X), the Collaboration Reform Initiative, the Newark NJ Police Department Consent Decree, and the New Jersey-Information Sharing Environment. All these strive, in one fashion or another, to promote more effective and efficient data sharing so that disparate pieces of information can be assimilated to prevent crime and increase safety in our neighborhoods.

Cardiellos has previously served as the Chief of Staff and Executive Advisor of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative's Program Management Office, where she was responsible for the financial, personnel, contracting, reporting and performance/evaluation aspects of the effort. She has also served as Deputy Executive Director of the National Information Exchange Model Program for the joint Department of Justice/Department of Homeland Security initiative. Moreover, she was previously Chief Information Officer for the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety within the Office of the Attorney General, where she led cutting-edge integration jobs for the public-sector community.

Ashwini Jarral is the executive director of the IJIS Institute, a nonprofit alliance working to promote and enable technology in the public sector and expand the use of information to maximize safety, efficiency, and productivity. IJIS has members and associates working within and across several major public sector areas of focus, including criminal justice (law enforcement, corrections, courts), public safety (fire, EMS, emergency management), homeland security, health and human services, and transportation.

With more than 16 years of experience and wide-ranging achievements across multiple disciplines, Jarral is a nationally-recognized entrepreneurial executive. In his position with IJIS, he is performance driven and leads diverse teams of industry and government executives in support of national and international strategies to develop comprehensive technology solutions. He is responsible for the strategies that help IJIS meet its mission of driving public-sector technology innovation and empowering information sharing to promote safer and healthier communities.

His career includes many successes, such as spearheading the Project Interoperability team, which developed a framework to support the National Strategy for Information Sharing and Safeguarding. Jarral also led the design of the national information-sharing solution for correctional and other criminal justice agencies to address recidivism issues.

Jarral holds a B.S. in Decision Science and Management Information Systems and an M.S. in Management Information Systems. He is a Six Sigma Green Belt Certified Professional. In recognition of his work, he has received a Fed 100 award, which is given to leaders from government, industry, and academia who contribute to the growth and success of federal IT projects and initiatives.