Lieutenant Don Christman (retired) served 26 years for the Fort Pierce, Florida, Police Department and retired at the rank of lieutenant. During his time of service, he was awarded the Medal of Valor, the Combat Cross, two Life Saving Awards, Officer of the Year, Detective of the Year, and Manager of the Year. As a SWAT team leader, Lieutenant Christman was involved in over 300 high-risk operations, including hostage rescue, barricaded subjects, active shooter events, and high-risk warrant service. He served as supervisor over the Crime Suppression Unit and the United States Marshals Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team. Lieutenant Christman is recognized as an expert witness regarding police use of force, non-escalation/de-escalation tactics, and active shooter response. He is the lead use-of-force instructor at Indian River State College and has instructed all branches of the U.S. military. He has been consulted on several high-profile cases and has testified on numerous occasions regarding these topics. Currently, Lieutenant Christman works as a training specialist for the Saint Lucie County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office and is responsible for maintaining training standards for the department. Lieutenant Christman is a second-degree black belt in Brazilian jiujitsu and specializes in training law enforcement and military personnel throughout the country.

Dr. Brian Lovins is a Principal at JSP. He earned his PhD in Criminology from the University of Cincinnati, and he is the past President for the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA). Prior to JSP, Dr. Lovins worked for Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department (CSCD) as the Assistant Director. He was tasked with developing and implementing agency wide change plans to drive increased successful completion rates. Dr. Lovins has been instrumental in introducing the referee/coach conversation to the field. In 2018, Dr. Lovins and colleagues published the initial article “Probation Officer as a Coach: Building a New Professional Identity” in Federal Probation. Since then, he has delivered hundreds of conference presentations and invited talks regarding the referee/coach concept. Dr. Lovins routinely consults with agencies regarding their implementation of a coaching framework within the context of evidenced-based interventions. Dr. Lovins has received the 2020 Edward J. Latessa Practitioner Research Award from the American Society of Criminology-Division on Corrections and Sentencing for his continued body of work in helping community corrections move forward. He has also been honored with the Dr. Simon Dinitz Public Service Award for his work and dedication in helping correctional agencies adopt evidence-based programs and the David Dillingham Award, as well as a being recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus from the University of Cincinnati. His publications include articles on risk assessment, sexual offenders, effective interventions, and cognitive-behavioral interventions.

Sasha Barab, PhD, is a Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University. Professor Barab is an internationally recognized Learning Scientist who has researched, designed, and published extensively on the challenges and opportunities of unlocking human potential--over 100 manuscripts with 25,000+ citations, and innovations that have engaged over 200,000 users to support learning and transformation. He is founder and CEO of Lifelab Studios, a personal growth and lifelong wellness committed to ensuring all justice-involved youth and young adults have the opportunity to make positive life changes.

Gabriella Priest Celestin is a Senior Associate at Justice System Partners. Gabriella works with community corrections agencies around the country to elevate practices and align organizational culture with the Coach Model for Change. Gabriella leads the National Institute of Corrections Implementing Organizational Resources to Support Behavior Change project in three states, and the Community Supervision Leadership Learning Lab virtual training academy with the National Institute of Corrections. Gabriella also manages JSP’s Coaching Network for Change (CNC) - an interactive virtual community of practice for community corrections organizations implementing the coaching model.

For two decades, Gabriella has worked tirelessly to improve the criminal legal system, partnering with practitioners, policymakers, academics, and impacted individuals and their families in research and evidenced-based practices for equitable reform and services. Prior to joining JSP, Gabriella was the Program Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management (PCJ) and served on the PCJ’s Roundtable on Reducing Racial Disparities in Massachusetts Criminal Courts. Gabriella worked for 11 years at the nonprofit Community Resources for Justice (CRJ). As CRJ’s Director of Innovation, Implementation, and Development, she was responsible for oversight of its Massachusetts community-based reentry programs and its Social Justice Services (SJS) training academy. Through CRJ's Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) division, Gabriella led youth and adult justice system policy reform and implementation efforts in several states– Georgia, Utah, Kansas, Oregon, West Virginia, and Kentucky– as part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. These reforms improved outcomes and reduced prison and juvenile system populations.

Gabriella is an adjunct faculty member at Suffolk University, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on crime and justice. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and Criminology and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Suffolk University. Gabriella is Vice President of the Board of Directors of the International Community Justice Association (ICJA) and founded ICJA’s Justice Emerging Leaders (JEL) Network.

Kosean Kokeh is a Research Associate at Justice System Partners (JSP). He has 13 years of experience in the criminal justice system and higher education. His years of experience have allowed him to observe the system’s various components and engage in work focused on behavioral, social, and system change. Kosean began his career in treatment and educational services for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections before transitioning to recovery and reentry coordination for non-profit organizations. After gaining experience with and insight into the impact of substance abuse, inadequate mental health services, and the consequences of limited social resources, Kosean started working in the probation officer capacity on the state and then the federal level. In his role, he continued to work towards helping individuals, his places of employment, and the surrounding communities move towards prosocial, equitable, and just actions. Specifically, Kosean was instrumental in developing and implementing a drug court program, created the Careers in Federal Government Program, served on the workplace conduct committee, and assisted in developing and delivering the first-ever Social Justice Conference in the federal judiciary. His commitment to engaging and impacting the criminal justice system led him to start work as an adjunct professor at the University of Rhode Island, where he developed and taught criminal justice courses focused on ethics and criminal theory. Kosean graduated from the University of Rhode Island and was awarded a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He completed his Master’s in the Administration of Justice in 2018 and is in his third year as a criminal justice doctorate student at Saint Leo University. Kosean completed a Certificate Program in Leverage Diversity and Inclusion for Organizational Excellence and is a National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education member.

Rachel Goldstein is a Senior Associate at JSP. She has 14 years of experience in the community corrections space. She has dedicated her career to collaboratively building a more equitable, just criminal legal system. She spent a year serving her country as an AmeriCorps member with the Rochester Police Department, where she advocated and stood alongside survivors of crime through the court process. After her year of service, she began her government career as a probation officer working at the county and federal level. She found her niche learning and incorporating core correctional practices and principles of effective intervention into her daily work with people on supervision. She became a Staff Aimed at Reducing Rearrest (STARR) coach and a national coach for the Criminogenic Needs and Violence Curriculum (CNVC), a manualized curriculum that creates a common language and set of materials for the officer, person on supervision, their support network and treatment providers. Rachel transitioned into a probation administrator role at the Administrative Office of the United States Courts where she began to tackle how to address the segmented evidence-based programming and training into a comprehensive approach that defines what it means to do community supervision work well. This is where she was introduced to Implementation Science! Rachel immersed herself in implementation work within the government, in addition to legislative implementation efforts at REFORM Alliance, an advocacy agency focused on transforming probation and parole. She sees implementation as the foundation to ensure that agencies have the needed infrastructure and capacity to support change. She is a proud member of the Global Implementation Society and the American Probation and Parole Association. She completed a Certificate Program in Implementation Practice through the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Social Work. Rachel obtained a Master of Public Administration from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Knox College.

Dylan Norris is an Associate at Justice System Partners. She is a dedicated professional with a strong background in the nonprofit sector specializing in project development, implementation, and curation of various justice programs. In her most recent role as Justice Coordinator for a nonprofit in Louisiana, she was responsible for the facilitation of the Lafayette Reentry Coalition, two Justice and Mental Health Collaborative grant funded projects — Pre-Arrest Diversion Program and a Judicial Diversion for Mental Health Intervention Project, as well as managing the Department of Corrections Community Incentive Grant for Lafayette Parish called The Community Care Hub for Reentry. Dylan holds her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and her Master of Social Work from New Mexico State University. Dylan’s passion for social and restorative justice approaches when working within the criminal justice space is what ultimately led her to JSP.

Shannon Magnuson (she/her), PhD is the Director of Influence and Storytelling for JSP where she provides creative, mixed-media, and evidence-informed training and technical assistance to local, state and federal partners and practitioners. Her work is dedicated to implementing and improving culturally responsive and equitable policies and practices in the criminal justice system which offer humane and dignified care of both staff working and individuals navigating the justice system.

Russha Knauer, BA, MCJA is the Director of the MINDSOURCE Brain Injury Network. MINDSOURCE provides support for client services and funds research grants and education and outreach. Additionally, the support organizations and systems to implement the Colorado Brain Injury Model. This model was developed with support across multiple criminal justice systems across the state and is now used nationally and internationally to screen and provide strategies and supports for those who have an injury to the brain.

Kimberly R. Kras, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University where her research interests include community corrections, evidence-based practices, and desistance from offending. She is also the Co-Editor of Perspectives, APPA’s quarterly journal.