At APPA's 2024 Winter Training Institute, participants can choose from up to 11 concurrent sessions during each block tailored to their interests. Additionally, in each block of concurrent sessions, you can experience the excitement of “Main Stage Sessions” held in the grand hall- Elwha Ballroom on the fifth floor and live-streamed for our virtual audience.
Session Description: The history of probation, parole, and community corrections is replete with examples of practices and programs that begin with the promise of enhancing public safety, but end with disappointment. There are many reasons why our profession adopts new strategies for doing business. Ideally, it should be because public safety and justice are enhanced. In reality, however, the adoption of new programs and practices may be based on political and public perceptions and seemingly commonsense, which in the end may be closer to nonsense. This workshop will explore what works and what does not regarding recidivism reduction, the politics of community correctional policies and practices, and the need for a creating a work environment where line staff can effectively manage short-term risk and accomplish long-term behavioral reform.
Professor, University of North Carolina Pembroke
Dr. Paparozzi worked at the New Jersey Department of Corrections. He held positions from parole officer trainee through supervisory/management titles including Deputy Interstate Compact Administrator, Assistant Commissioner of Community Programs, and Chairman of The New Jersey State Parole Board. After retiring from his practitioner career, Dr. Paparozzi accepted a faculty appointment at The College of New Jersey’s Department of Law and Justice. In 2003, Dr. Paparozzi accepted a position at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Dr. Paparozzi’s numerous publications are extensively cited by scholars and practitioners. Dr. Paparozzi has provided numerous keynote addresses, seminars, and professional training in 46 states, Singapore, the District of Columbia, The United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Bermuda, Poland, Germany, and The Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. He is a past-president of the American Probation and Parole Association, was a member or the Manhattan Institute's council to reinvent probation. He founded the New Jersey Parole Officers’ Benevolent Association - PBA #326. Dr. Paparozzi has appeared on several television and radio shows in the United States and Canada, including A&E’s Investigative Reports, NBC’s Dateline, Al Jazeera America, and Geraldo Rivera. Dr. Paparozzi Member of Columbia University’s Criminal Justice Lab, EXiT (Executives Transforming Probation and Parole).
Session Description: The workshop will consist of an employer using second chance workers, a representative from the critical labor coalition and a trade association with a robust second chance program. The goal of the workshop will be to explain the need to connect the APPA and employer community, ways to get involved and have an open discussion of “next steps.”
Executive Director, Critical Labor Coalition
Founder & CEO, Honest Jobs
Workforce Development Manager, National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation
Misty Chally
Misty Chally is the CEO of Capitol Solutions, a government relations firm representing 22 franchisee associations on tax-, healthcare-, and labor-related issues. She is also the Executive Director of the Critical Labor Coalition, a 501c(4) she formed to address the nation’s critical labor shortage, which includes connecting the second chance community with employers.
Harley Blakeman
Harley Blakeman is the Founder & CEO of Honest Jobs, a platform to help people with criminal records find better jobs faster. He spent 14 months in prison as a teenager, so the mission is personal. He helps over 1,300 employers nationwide give people with past convictions a fair chance.
Dontavious Drake
Dontavious Drake is a seasoned reentry professional with a diverse background in criminal justice and rehabilitation. Having served as a Parole Officer in Georgia, Dontavious supervised clients across all levels, gaining valuable insights into the challenges faced by individuals reintegrating into society. As a reentry program coordinator, he played a pivotal role in establishing reentry programs at Georgia's first facility dedicated to providing comprehensive support for individuals returning from state prisons to the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Currently, Dontavious serves as Workforce Development Manager at the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. In this role, he leads the implementation of the foundation’s federally funded reentry programs in Delaware, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas. Dontavious’ commitment to supporting individuals in their journey toward successful reintegration is evident through strategic leadership and dedication to creating meaningful opportunities for those seeking a fresh start.
Session Description: By understanding personality traits, you increase self-knowledge and self-awareness. Your personality can help or hinder you in your succession. If you do not understand what drives your actions and behaviors, it will be hard to cultivate growth, especially in leadership roles. As you discover what inspires you, you’ll identify what may hold you back. You’ll discover the traits, habits and behaviors that propel you forward and identify the traits, habits and behaviors that has caused you to mismanage, micromanage or misunderstand co-workers, family, and friends.
Probation Manager, Massachusetts Probation Service
Jude David is a motivational speaker and trainer that brings authenticity, entertainment and education in every presentation he delivers. Growing from humbled beginnings, he devoted his career to public service and did so in a manner that was true to his culture and his identity. Starting his career as a group home manager for at risk youth, he transitioned to the Department of Youth Services as a unit supervisor. Four years later, he moved to the Sheriff’s Department where he was able to complete his Master’s Degree in Public Administration. In 2018, he became a probation officer and since then has been promoted to his current role of Program Manager. He is a self-proclaimed “city kid” that stresses the importance of authenticity and diversity. He is a national speaker who brings popular culture into his speeches with the use of music, movies and entertainment to deliever his punchlines. He is high energy, relatable, edgy and fun to watch.
Session Description: Every year, hundreds of thousands of individuals are arrested for driving under the influence and in 2021 these impaired drivers were responsible for 13,284 fatalities. Community justice and treatment professionals can face unique challenges in assessing risk levels for these offenders while determining the most appropriate level and type of supervision, technology and treatment needs to minimize the risk of a re-offense and a new victim. This interactive training will provide an overview and continuum of the most recent evidence-based practices for addressing the issues of high-risk impaired drivers from arrest to discharge. This includes the latest research on assessment tools, characteristics of high-risk impaired drivers, polysubstance use, community supervision strategies, available technologies, the use of Problem-Solving Courts, as well as treatment programming to help criminal justice and treatment professionals maximize their effectiveness while reducing risk to the community.
Probation Fellow, APPA
As National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Probation Fellow, Mark Stodola brings over 30 years of experience working in the field of court management and adult probation in Arizona. Mark worked at the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department for 18 years serving in a number of capacities including division director overseeing drug and alcohol treatment programs, problem solving courts and services for the mentally ill. Mark later became the Court Administrator of the Tempe Municipal Court where he served for eight years managing the day to day activities of the court. Most recently Mark served as Program Services Manager in the Adult Probation Services Division of the Arizona Supreme Court where he had oversight of treatment programs for Arizona’s Adult Probation Departments. Mark has presented training on topics surrounding high risk drunk drivers at national, regional and state conferences throughout the country. Mark also is an adjunct instructor at Arizona State University. Mark received his undergraduate degree in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Master’s Degree in Education from Northern Arizona University. Mark became a Graduate Fellow through the National Council of State Courts Institute of Court Management.
Session Description: Most everyone will say it takes a village to raise a child or strengthen a community, but what does that actually mean in practice and how do we embrace this thinking in our community corrections systems? This workshop will discuss the evolving theology implemented in the Los Angeles County Probations Department - TRI Academy - Secure Youth Treatment Facilities program. This session will discuss collaboration, restorative justice practices, critical pedagogy, education, caring ethics, and cultural relevance. It will address as a theology a methodology for systems change and reform. This session can be either run as a one hour in person session, a 90 minute in person session, or a 4 hour intensive. Depending on the selection, it may or may not have partners included in the discussion that can validate the evolving theology.
Deputy Probation Officer-Programs and Services Coordinator, Los Angeles County Probation Department
Dr. Ventura is a Deputy Probation Officer for the Los Angeles County Probation. Prior to his work in the public sector, he worked across the full spectrum of care related to social and human services. As a system impacted individual, with a lifelong connection to justice and equity struggles faced by BIPOC peoples, he focused on work related to eliminating or navigating barriers and improving systems and uplifting the consciousness of individuals to help them overcome their circumstances. In addition to his work for the probation department, Dr. Ventura serves as a grant reviewer for the U.S. Department of Justice, has worked on developing curriculum for numerous organizations, has served as a consultant to nonprofits working with systems and system impacted people. He has worked with adults in the Los Angeles County Jail system, while he spent time teaching in each of the lockup facilities, he spent a significant amount of time in the very same facility he once held a number for. Making the irony even greater is that one of the facilities he now manages programs for, his father once resided in. Dr. Ventura has come full circle in many ways, but his focus and the purpose of this workshop comes from having experienced watching his uncle, a Brown Beret and his aunt a member of the Black Panthers, both engaged in the civil rights movements dedicate their lives to social, racial and economic justice through educational opportunity and advancement. As guiding mentors, Dr. Ventura has not only embraced their passions as his own; he blended it into his own fight for justice and system reform. This includes the importance of considering victim impacts, reducing violence and healing from its trauma; another important element as he and his family are also survivors of a street violence related murder while at Morehouse College. As a young at risk youth in his own right, Dr. Ventura graduated from a Continuation High School; eventually went back to school to earn his Bachelors Degree in Social Work from California State University, Los Angeles, a Masters Degree in Public Administration with a special emphasis on Social and Human Services, Public and Non-profit Administration from the University of La Verne, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership with an emphasis on Service of Justice, Access and Social Change from California State University. His Dissertation, Liberating Consciousness was a study of a large county correctional education system has become the basis of his expertise around programs and services that contribute to changing individuals and systems. Dr. Ventura has lectured at numerous institutions in Southern California, has presented at various conferences, served on Boards and Advisory Committees, and continues to serve the community. His last academic assignment was at Pacific Oaks College where he taught sections on Human Development, Social Justice, and Advocacy.
Session Description: súɬ ʔaʔ cə x̣ə́w̕əs sxʷnéʔ (The Path/Road to New Beginnings)
In 2015, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (PGST) was a recipient of a Second Chance Act (SCA) Adult-Demonstration grant for reentry programming for PGST, Suquamish and other Federally recognized tribal members incarcerated in Kitsap County Jail. These initial grant efforts led to the founding of a Reentry Program that opened community conversations and provider practices about authentic reentry from an Indigenous perspective incorporating risk need assessments, integrated service plans, cognitive behavior therapy, and support in traditional Indigenous ways by recognizing the many barriers Native Nations face in assisting formerly incarcerated in re-engaging with community. With subsequent SCA funding (2018 and 2022) PGST has further developed our reentry programming, súɬ ʔaʔ cə x̣ə́w̕əs sxʷnéʔ (The Path/Road to New Beginnings) with evidence-based modalities fused with Indigenous traditional ways. This workshop will illuminate the development and expansion of a Tribal reentry program that fits the needs of Indigenous communities and works to build success for participants.
Director of Court Services, Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe
Success Coach Coordinator, Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe
Success Coach/Transistional Housing, Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe
Christina Barone
As Director of Court Services for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, Christina Barone leads the strategic direction of the Tribe’s judicial branch and supports its dynamic programs for restorative justice through community building and capacity. Chris is inspired to drive change by advancing knowledge about justice reform and working towards implementing solutions on the ground, ensuring fairness, promoting public safety, and strengthening justice in tribal communities. Chris earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the Sorbonne University in France and has extensive experience in grant writing, strength-based social change work, advocacy and community engagement. Chris is currently working on further her education in Indigenous Studies at the Evergreen State College and is a citizen of the (Lenape) Delaware Tribe.
Selina Ramirez
Selina Ramirez is a mother of four children and grandmother to two grandbabies; she is also a Tribal Member of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and a person in Recovery of over 6 years. Ramirez is a Re-Entry Coordinator /Success Coach for Road to New Beginnings with the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. She has been working as a Success Coach for about 4 years and Reentry Coordinator a little over a year. Ramirez is certified in Recovery Coaching, Trauma Informed Care, Conflict Resolution, White Bison, Medicine Wheel, Correctional Assessments for Intervention Systems, Peer Recovery Support in Tribal Communities, Neurobiology of Addictions- Beyond the Basics and is a Restorative Circle Practitioner. She sits on the DUI Victims Impact Panel. Throughout Selina’s journey she came across many barriers and obstacles that prevented her from getting out of the cycle of addiction and incarceration. It all changed when she met her Success Coach. She truly believes having that Success Coach working side by side helped her to get where she is today. Selina understands how hard it is to make it and is dedicated to her profession. She believes in providing hope to others that are stuck in addiction and to show them there is a chance and someone cares. She feels very strongly for advocacy for the ones that struggle with barriers.
Valarie Jones
Valarie Jones member of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. She takes pride in her journey on the red road of recovery as she is a person of lived experience. Valarie is the Lead Success Coach/Case Manager for Port Gambles Recovery homes, Success Coach for the Re-Entry Program. Valarie is certified in Recovery Coaching, Trauma Informed Care, NWI Healthy Relationships, White Bison Medicine Wheel of the 12 steps, Warrior Down, Correctional Assessments for Intervention Systems, Mental Health Firs Aid USA. She has a passion for the Second Chance Act, due to her lived experience she was a participant in the Port Gamble Re-Entry Program. Upon completion of Re-Entry, she was given the opportunity to work in the Tribes Court Services Program starting out as an assistant and quickly flourished. With her dedication and passion, she worked her way up to the Re-Entry Success Coach to give back and be a helping hand for her community and tribe.
Session Description: This workshop will provide the audience with knowledge to improve reentry outcomes for Tribal clients through a discussion on historical and on-going trauma the impacts your client's ability to reintegrate back into their communities. This workshop will discuss the ways in which community corrections personnel can effectively interact with Tribal Clients. This workshop will work to improving cultural awareness through creating an understanding of traditional, cultural, historical and on-going trauma impacts on Tribal Clients.
Tribal Grant Manager, APPA
Mark Dyea is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna and Disabled Veteran. Mark is the Tribal Grants Manager for the American Probation and Parole Association where he collaborates with Tribes to secure training and technical assistance in program planning, implementation, and enhancement. Mark has over 17 years of Community Supervision and Treatment Court experience. During this time, he worked for the Pueblo of Laguna’s Probation & Parole Services for over ten years as a Probation Officer, Wellness Court Coordinator, Program Manager, and co-founded the Pueblo’s Community Wellness Court program and served as its Co-Coordinator for seven years. Mark has also worked as a Case Manager for the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court Specialty Courts and Coordinator for the Pueblo of San Felipe Healing to Wellness Court. Mark served as a Sr. Consultant for the NADCP Tribal Healing to Wellness Court Planning Initiative and as faculty for TLPI. As a consultant Mark has worked with numerous jurisdictions across the country to develop and enhance Treatment Courts. Over the course of his career Mark as collaborated with multiple jurisdictions, including State, Federal, and Tribal entities, to improve community supervision outcomes and intergovernmental relationships.
Session Description: It is impossible to imagine sitting down to engage in conversation with the person responsible for the death of a loved one, let alone forgive them. During this presentation you will witness a true story of the power of forgiveness, accepting responsibility and how lives can be changed through the process of Victim Offender Mediation. You will also hear about the real challenges that come as a result of the process, which may last a lifetime. It is never easy to confront tragedy face to face, but it is even harder to never have the opportunity to gain insight and clarity allowing the process of healing to begin.
This presentation will allow you to hear Sheila’s story and the path she took to engage with the person responsible for the death of her mother, to find a different vision of what could happen for both of them, and, to turn tragedy into hope and anger into forgiveness.
Victim Offender Mediation Advocate
Sheila Kembel grew up in the Pacific Northwest prior to relocating to Tucson Arizona where she graduated from the University of Arizona with a BS in Sociology and a Minor in Criminal Justice. She went on to graduate from the University of Cincinnati with her master’s degree in criminal justice. In 2018, she retired from Pima County Juvenile Court after serving as a Probation Officer, Supervisor and JDAI Coordinator.
Following her retirement, Sheila returned to the Pacific Northwest to be close to family and her now five-year-old granddaughter. She is currently working in Lake Washington School District as the District School Safety Manager and continues to share her personal journey through victim offender mediation in hopes of allowing others the unique insight into the process and how impactful it can be to those involved.
Session Description: Research has shown that correctional professionals play a key role as agents of change as they create a professional alliance with those under community supervision. Positive Working relationships generate buy-in and motivate people to explore necessary changes to lead a law-abiding life. Yet, the case planning process in many agencies focuses more on supervision conditions and less on the factors that help people succeed, such as working on activities associated with their assessed needs. Complicated and cumbersome case planning processes and case plans create unnecessary burdens and can contribute to disappointing risk reduction and behavior change results. This workshop will focus on the research on case planning and professional alliance, present a simplified case planning process and include several examples of case plans working in other agencies throughout the country. In addition, the components of a good case plan and the professional alliance process will be discussed and demonstrated. This workshop will leave attendees with an action plan to develop a more relevant process resulting in a more positive outcome for those under supervision.
Partner, JustUs Consulting Consortium
Partner, JustUs Consulting Consortium
Executive Director, The Carey Group
Ray Wahl
Ray has worked in the field of community corrections for 45 years. He has served as the Director of Utah Adult Probation and Parole and the Utah Juvenile Court Administrator, who oversees the operation of juvenile probation. He has delivered consulting services in several states and internationally. He retired from the Utah Courts in July 2019 after serving twenty years and most recently as Deputy State Court Administrator for the last eight years. He has been a lifelong member of the American Probation and Parole Association and served as President from 1999 to 2001. He received the APPA Walter Dunbar Memorial Award in 2008 and the National Association of Probation Executives Executive of the Year in 2011. He has served on various committees and been a consultant for the National Institute of Corrections, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the National Center for State Courts. He is one of the principles of JustUs Consulting.
Scott Taylor
Scott Taylor has had 45 years of experience working in the field of community corrections. He has served in leadership positions as the Director of the Oregon Community Justice department and the Director of the Multnomah County Justice Department. He has also served as the mayor of the town in lives in for several terms. Since his retirement, he has been delivering evidence based practice consulting services with JustUs Consulting Consortium. He is a past president of the American Probation and Parole Association.
Susan Burke
Susan Burke is the Executive Director for Carey Group, Consulting and Publishing, a practitioner-led justice consulting firm dedicated to advancing research-informed practices and tools to improve system outcomes and community well-being. Susan is also a subject matter expert on justice system reform and practices and an executive coach for justice system leaders.
Susan has over 30 years of experience working in the justice field, implementing and leading change efforts as a probation executive, head of a state juvenile corrections agency, and public policy specialist. In these positions, Susan was instrumental in influencing community mobilization and leading public policy changes. While working for the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, she authored a gang prevention community mobilization guide, produced two gang prevention videos in partnership with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, and managed juvenile justice policies and programs. While Director of the Utah Substance Abuse and Anti-Violence Coordinating Council, she received the Governor’s Award for her leadership in the passage of the Drug Offender Reform Act, which provided treatment rather than incarceration for people convicted of drug-related offenses.
As a probation executive, she instituted annual certification standards for probation officers to reflect evidence-based practices and managed system innovation projects. As director of a statewide youth correctional system, she was responsible for operating and managing a full continuum of services, including early intervention and shelter care services, detention centers, long-term secure facilities, case management, and parole. During her tenure, she successfully increased home and community-based services for youth in the justice system, effectively shrinking bed capacity and improving outcomes. In 2015 the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators awarded her Outstanding Administrator. In 2018 she was named the Youth Advocate of Year by the Utah Board of Juvenile Justice for her juvenile justice reform efforts.
Upon Susan’s retirement from public service, she joined the Steering Committee of the Youth Correctional Leaders for Justice, an organization that supports closing archaic youth prisons and replacing them with in-home services and community-based programs and facilities that are youth-centered and developmentally appropriate.
Susan received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Utah. She is also a graduate of the 2009 inaugural class of the Leadership Institute, sponsored by the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA), National Association of Probation Executives (NAPE), National Institute of Corrections, and the Correctional Management Institute of Sam Houston State University. She was elected APPA president in 2015 and received the prestigious Walter Dunbar Memorial Award in 2020. In 2022, she was elected president of the National Association of Probation Executives, a national association committed to enhancing the professionalism and effectiveness of executives and bringing positive change in the field.
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Also, special thanks goes to our Corporate Members!
