Made Possible with Our Sponsor:
APPA’s 2026 Executive Leadership Summit
Safe, Strong, and Effective: Executive Leadership for People, Performance, and Public Safety
EVENT OVERVIEW
August 14–15, 2026 | Chicago, Illinois
The American Probation and Parole Association’s Executive Leadership Summit (Summit) offers a unique opportunity for executive decision-makers to engage in high-level dialogue focused on workforce sustainability, operational excellence, leadership effectiveness, and the future of community justice. Attendance is intentionally limited to encourage meaningful engagement and executive-level collaboration. Available slots are expected to fill quickly. Early registration is strongly encouraged to secure participation in this timely and highly anticipated leadership event.
This Summit will bring together executive leaders in community supervision, corrections, and public safety to address the growing challenges facing agencies in today’s complex and rapidly changing environment. As organizations navigate workforce shortages, burnout, operational fatigue, public scrutiny, and increasing demands for accountability, the summit provides a space for strategic dialogue focused on leadership, organizational resilience, workforce wellbeing, retention, operational effectiveness, and public trust.
Centered on strengthening leadership capacity in complex supervision environments, the Summit highlights practical strategies for building healthier, stronger, and more adaptive organizations. Participants will explore how leadership behavior, organizational culture, communication, accountability, and psychological safety influence long-term success. Sessions will also examine evidence-informed practices, implementation science, culture change, artificial intelligence, and leadership approaches that move agencies beyond reactive systems toward sustainable operational excellence.
This unparalleled symposium of leaders also emphasizes workforce development, cross-system collaboration, and community partnerships as essential components of effective community well-being outcomes. Discussions will focus on building high-performing teams, supporting professional growth, and strengthening partnerships with judges, service providers, defense attorneys, funding agencies, and community organizations. Participants will leave with practical leadership strategies, a clear understanding of their role in building resilient organizations, and a renewed commitment to improving community safety.
Keynote Address
Safe, Strong, and Effective: 7 Leadership Shifts That Build Resilient Organizations and Sustainable Public Safety
Public safety leaders are being asked to navigate workforce challenges, increasing complexity, public scrutiny, and growing demands for improved outcomes while simultaneously strengthening organizational culture, workforce resilience, and community trust. This interactive session explores seven leadership shifts that help organizations move beyond exhaustion, reactivity, and short-term problem solving toward stronger systems, healthier cultures, and more sustainable results.
Drawing from leadership research, organizational development, and real-world public safety experience, participants will examine how leadership behavior, trust, accountability, self-awareness, and leadership development influence organizational performance and long-term public safety outcomes. Leaders will leave with practical strategies for strengthening their organizations from the inside out while building the capacity required to meet today's challenges and shape the future of community supervision and public safety.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Alexandra Walker, Director of Community Relations and Strategy, Alliance for Community and Justice Innovation (ACJI)
Executive Innovation Lab
The Executive Innovation Lab is more than a conversation; it is a dynamic, invitation-only experience for community corrections and supervision leaders ready to shape the future of reentry and public safety. This exclusive Lab brings together top executives (only those registered for the Summit) and a select group of key industry stakeholders, including representatives from the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), the Center for Justice Innovation, and the Council of State Governments.
Embedded within the Summit, this highly interactive session will include executive leaders, supervision professionals, service providers, researchers, philanthropic partners, community-based organizations, and individuals with lived experience to tackle some of the field’s most pressing challenges. The Lab provides a rare opportunity to step away from daily demands and engage in focused collaboration with peers and innovators from across the country.
Through facilitated discussions, real-world problem-solving, and hands-on co-design activities, participants will explore bold ideas, test emerging strategies, and identify practical solutions that improve outcomes while reducing reliance on incarceration. Rather than working in silos, attendees will join a diverse network of changemakers committed to building more effective, equitable, and community-centered systems.
The Executive Innovation Lab is intentionally action oriented. Participants will leave with more than inspiration; they will gain new partnerships, actionable insights, implementation-ready concepts, and a clearer path toward driving meaningful change in their jurisdictions and communities. If you are committed to advancing innovation, strengthening public safety, and creating lasting impact, the Executive Innovation Lab is where the next generation of solutions begins.
If you are committed to leading innovative advancements, enhancing community safety, and creating a lasting impact, the Executive Innovation Lab is where the next generation of solutions begins!
Sessions
Strengthening Executive Leadership in Complex Supervision Environments
TBA
Presenter: Chris Goede, Executive Vice President, Corporate Solutions, Maxwell Leadership
Utilization of Artificial Intelligence in Community Corrections
This 60-minute workshop provides community corrections professionals with a practical introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its role in supervision operations and decision-making. Participants will explore key AI concepts, including Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Deep Learning, and Generative AI, while examining real-world applications such as workflow automation, predictive analytics, document processing, officer assistance, and client engagement. The session will also address organizational readiness, data quality, governance, ethics, bias, transparency, security, and change management considerations necessary for responsible AI adoption. Attendees will leave with practical insights into how AI can enhance operational efficiency, reporting, risk assessment, and decision-making in community corrections while reinforcing the importance of human judgment and strategic implementation.
Presenter: Robert Ambroselli, Director of Product for Enterprise Supervision, Tyler Technology
Developing, Supporting, and Retaining a High-Performing Workforce: Creating Agents of Change in an Era of Uncertainty
This session examines how today’s correctional leaders must move beyond traditional, compliance-focused applications of the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model to embrace the broader Principles of Effective Intervention (PEI) in order to meet the demands of an increasingly complex, human-centered environment. Participants will explore how organizational systems and leadership practices influence staff behavior, decision-making, and professional growth, while identifying barriers that limit adaptability, discretion, and authentic engagement. Through practical discussion and reflection, leaders will gain insight into how intentionally aligning systems and culture can support a workforce that is empowered to think critically, respond effectively, and act as agents of change in a constantly evolving correctional landscape.
Presenter: Jennifer Scott
Director of Innovation & Outreach
UCCI
Presenter: Myrinda Smith
Executive Director
UCCI
From Innovation to Impact: Building Organizations That Can Successfully Implement Change
Across public safety, community supervision, and reentry systems, organizations continue to invest in promising practices, innovative programs, and evidence-based approaches, yet many change efforts fail to achieve their intended impact. Why? Because successful implementation requires more than training, policy changes, or good intentions. It requires systems that support learning, adaptation, and continuous improvement.
This interactive session introduces leaders to practical principles from implementation science that help organizations move from ideas to measurable results. Participants will explore why traditional change efforts often fall short and learn how implementation teams, feedback loops, rapid-cycle improvement, meaningful measurement, and incremental change strategies can improve execution, reduce change fatigue, and increase the likelihood of sustainable outcomes. Leaders will leave with actionable tools for creating implementation-ready organizations capable of translating innovation into lasting impact.
Presenter: Dr. Alexandra Walker, Director of Community Relations and Strategy, Alliance for Community and Justice Innovation (ACJI)
Choosing Your Hard: The Paradox and Promise of Culture Change
As organizations strive to improve outcomes, leaders often focus on programs, policies, and performance metrics. Yet the deeper driver of sustained success lies upstream, in organizational culture. For executive leaders, the challenge is not simply understanding culture, but intentionally shaping it through consistent leadership behavior in complex and demanding environments.
Working in a challenging culture is hard. Changing culture is hard. In the post-COVID era, leaders face a fundamental choice: operate within the difficulty of existing conditions or engage in the disciplined work of shaping something better. The question is not whether the work will be hard, but which version of hard leaders are willing to choose to advance excellence in organizational and human performance.
Designed for chiefs and directors, this session brings an executive lens to shifting culture across systems. It connects leadership mindset, psychological safety, and organizational wellbeing to the everyday behaviors that define culture in practice. Participants will explore how culture is co-created through what leaders model, reinforce, and tolerate, and how meaningful change happens not through isolated initiatives, but through aligned and sustained leadership action.
Drawing from evidence-informed culture change models and implementation-informed approaches, this session offers a practical and accessible framework for translating insight into action. It challenges leaders to move beyond awareness into ownership, recognizing their role as architects of culture and stewards of the conditions that enable trust, accountability, and performance.
Presenter: Glenn Tapia, Director of Leadership and Organizational Intelligence, Alliance for Community and Justice Innovation (ACJI)
Registration
Participation in the Summit is intentionally limited to senior leaders across community supervision and the broader justice system to support a focused, high-level exchange of ideas.
Eligible participants include:
- Directors and Chiefs of Probation, Parole, and Pretrial Agencies
- Department of Corrections Commissioners and Executive Directors
- Parole Board and Criminal Justice Board members
- Judges, legislators, county commissioners, and senior leaders from prosecutorial and defense agencies
- Nonprofit and federal leaders supporting community supervision and reentry efforts
- APPA's Corporate Partners - one representative from each
A limited number of registration options are available, including a combined Summit and Training Institute in-person registration, allowing participants to attend both events at a discounted price.
SPECIAL NOTE: Agency heads who cannot attend may assign a designee (assistant chief, assistant director, second-in-command, etc.) to attend.
HOTEL
Hyatt Regency Chicago
151 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60601
Hyatt Regency Chicago the largest hotel in downtown Chicago, Illinois, on the river, with more than 2,000 guest rooms and suites and the largest selection of event space. The guest rooms offer stunning downtown, Chicago River and Lake Michigan views with all the comforts of a modern urban getaway. Located at the center of the city’s top attractions, Hyatt Regency Chicago offers it hotel guests a walkable location and easy access to Navy Pier, Millennium Park, Chicago Riverwalk, the Magnificent Mile and Lake Michigan. Please contact the hotel directly for more information on discounted daily parking.
