Jill earned a master’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Criminology with a Juvenile Justice specialization at the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science.  She is a fellow of the School-Justice Partnerships and Diversion Pathways Certificate Program at the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University and serves as the Northeast Region Representative of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice Executive Board.

Jill has twenty years police experience, most of which have been spent in the juvenile justice arena.  She has held the role of Youth Detective, supervisor of the Youth Safety Division/Detective Bureau Sergeant, and manager of the School Resource Officer and Juvenile Review Board Diversion programs.  Jill also has extensive experience working directly with youth within the schools and in police/youth/community partnership programs.  

Jill has trained thousands of law enforcement officers, community partners, and juvenile justice system decision-makers across the United States.  She has spent over a decade working with the State of Connecticut Juvenile Justice Advisory Police/Youth Subcommittee on eliminating racial and ethnic disparities within the system, as a compliance monitor, and as a data collector for the state’s Disproportionate Minority Contact Study. 

Additionally, she has been an adjunct college professor of criminal and juvenile justice courses for several years.  Jill believes that an effective way to broadly impact the system is by educating future practitioners.  Jill is also a Police Office Standards and Training Council Certified Police Instructor in several subject matters including Juvenile Law/Handling Juveniles, Sexual Assault/Rape Crisis, Domestic Violence, Human Trafficking, and Human Behavior/Interpersonal Relations.

She has devoted both her personal and professional life advocating for children. 

Jill and her colleagues have spent decades in their careers working to ensure that every youth that comes into contact with the system is treated appropriately, fairly, and in a manner that will result in a positive outcome for that child. They remain extremely passionate and committed to youth justice reform efforts.  

In addition to experience in law enforcement, as child-serving agency practitioners, and as educators, their varied backgrounds enable the group to view reform efforts through many lenses. 

Together and in their individual roles within their respective agencies, they strive to broadly impact overall juvenile justice system improvement through training, educating and consulting, in best practices for positive interactions with youth and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities within the system.

They believe wholeheartedly that we are all the gatekeepers for the kids in our communities, especially law enforcement officers and educators. They also believe that the message needs to be spread far and wide, that if system workers, as the gatekeepers, are not trained properly in evidence-based best practices, children suffer and so too, do their families and communities.