The Most Important Letter in the Alphabet is "U"

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Dr. Brown is a Senior Pretrial Officer with Norfolk Criminal Justice Services, where she has served for 25 years. For the past 10 years, she has specialized in staff development, supervision, and collaborative problem-solving within the criminal justice system. In her current role, she oversees the supervision of pretrial defendants and leads staff training, evaluation, and performance feedback, while also serving as a liaison to the judiciary and community partners. She holds a Master of Arts in Applied Sociology from Old Dominion University and is a doctoral candidate in General Psychology with a specialization in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Her long-term research goals focus on how organizational culture, training, trauma exposure, and leadership practices influence morale, well-being, and retention among community-based criminal justice personnel.

Melissa Fanning is a seasoned Training Coordinator with the Hampton–Newport News Criminal Justice Agency, bringing over 30 years of experience, including two decades dedicated to systems improvement. She specializes in training criminal law professionals in evidence-based practices, communication, and effective supervision strategies. Ms. Fanning holds a B.S. in Public Administration from Virginia Tech and an M.S. in Criminal Justice from Saint Leo University. She has trained thousands of professionals statewide and has been a presenter for the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services for over a decade. Her work is driven by a commitment to strengthening outcomes for fathers, families, and communities impacted by the legal system.

Charlene T. Johnson- Probation Officer with Hampton- Newport News Criminal Justice Agency where she servers on the Domestic Violence Team. In her twenty-two (22) of service with HNNCJA she has participated on several committees, boards and advisory groups for the impletion of policy and procedure within the field. Charlene worked with VA General Assembly and succeeded helping change the law(s) in Virginia regarding survivors and offenders of Human Trafficking. Charlene assisted in creating and facilitating C.O.R.E. curriculum for Community Corrections Professionals. She is a state certified trainer for Trauma Informed Responses by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) GAINS Center. Charlene was privileged to be in the group colleagues from around the state, selected to participate in a Secondary Trauma Train-The-Trainer course facilitated by Kirsten Lewis of KSL Maricopa, AZ. Charlene is a firm believer that any profession that responds to the safety, health and wellbeing of the people they serve must make self-care a priority. Ensuring that professionals understand, recognize and know how to respond to Secondary Trauma is an interictal piece of self-care. Currently she works with a team of professionals in Virginia that secured grant funding developing a second phase of Secondary Trauma Training.