[James Nolan, Ph. D]

James J. Nolan is Professor and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at West Virginia University. His research and teaching has focused on neighborhood dynamics and police reform. His recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Policing & Society, Criminal Justice Studies, Homicide Studies, Journal of Criminal Justice, The British Journal of Criminology, and The American Sociologist. Dr. Nolan’s professional career began as a police officer in Wilmington, Delaware USA. In 13 years with that department, he worked in a variety of divisions, including patrol, community policing, and organized crime and vice. He is a 1992 graduate of the FBI National Academy. Dr. Nolan earned a Ph.D. from Temple University where his graduate work focused on the study of group and social processes.

[Yusef Jones]

Yusef Jones is a returning citizen who spent decades in our state penitentiary system. Having once been deemed too violent to be allowed to join the freedom rides, he is now a well-respected activist committed to restorative justice and pacifist principles. He lends his voice to the Abolitionist Law Center, the Committee to End Death By Incarceration, the Elsinore Bennu Center for Restorative Justice, and many other organizations.

[Dr. Norm Conti]

Norman Conti is a professor of sociology at Duquesne University, specializing in police socialization, social psychology, and restorative justice. Along with six men serving life sentences at the State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh, Dr. Conti founded the Elsinore Bennu Think Tank for Restorative Justice (EBTT), which created and developed the program Police Training Inside-Out. After the prison closed, the EBTT was reestablished on campus at Duquesne as a weekly conference of community activists and ex-offenders for developing ongoing programs to reduce recidivism and to address the needs of vulnerable youth. Dr. Conti is the coordinator of Duquesne’s Social Justice Association and a member of the national steering committee for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. His work has appeared in The American Sociologist, The Federal Sentencing Reporter, Law Enforcement Bulletin, The Police Journal, Police Practice & Research, Police Quarterly, Policing & Society, The Prison Journal, and Social Network Analysis.

[Chief Aaron Lauth]

Chief Aaron Lauth has been with the Mt. Lebanon Police Department since September 1998. He was promoted to his current rank of Chief of Police in May 2015. Chief Lauth was born and raised in Green Tree Borough and is a 1994 graduate of Keystone Oaks High School. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Mercyhurst College in 1998, and his Master of Science in Strategic Leadership from Mountain State University in 2007.

Chief Lauth began his Law Enforcement career as a police officer in Ocean City, Maryland in 1998. He completed the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officer Training Academy in 1997.

Chief Lauth previously served as a Deputy Chief of Police, a Lieutenant in the patrol division and a Corporal in the Crime Prevention Unit of the MLPD. He also served for several years as an Element Leader and Crisis Negotiator with the regional SHACOG Critical Incident Response Team.

Chief Lauth is a graduate of the Advanced Police Executive Management Training Program administered through the Pennsylvania State University and a 2016 graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, VA.

Chief Lauth currently serves on the Board of Directors of several regional and statewide police executive associations, including the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, the Western Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, and the Allegheny County Chiefs of Police Association.

Chief Lauth and his family reside in Mt. Lebanon.

[Richard Garland]

Richard Garland is a member of Pittsburgh's Community Taskforce on Police Reform and a resident of the South Hills. His research centers on working with troubled youth, especially those involved in gangs and gun violence. He works with police departments and community-based organizations throughout the state of Pennsylvania providing gun violence education and training. He completed his Master’s Degree in Social Work in 1996, specializing in Community Organization. He has also received several awards, including the Lucien E. Blackwell award from Philadelphia Mayor, Michael Nutter, for contributions to the greater community in 2009, and the Courage to Comeback Award from the St. Francis Foundation on Overcoming Economic Diversity in 1998.

[Dr. Carol A. Archbold]

Dr. Carol A. Archbold is the Chair and Walter F. and Verna Gehrts Endowed Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND. She has been at NDSU since 2005. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses focused on policing and research methods. Her research interests include police accountability and liability, police misconduct, women and policing, and race issues in the criminal justice system.

Dr. Archbold was awarded the Outstanding Mentor Award for 2018 from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the Walter F. and Verna Gehrts Endowed Professorship for 2015-2017, the 2013 Chamber of Commerce NDSU Distinguished Faculty Service Award, and the 2011 Outstanding Research/Creative Activity Award for the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at NDSU. She is an editorial board member for two peer-reviewed journals including Police Quarterly and Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management.

Dr. Archbold has published thirty peer reviewed papers in a variety of criminal justice and police journals. She conducted the first study on the use of risk management by police agencies in the United States. This study is featured in her book Police Accountability, Risk Management and Legal Advising (LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2004). Dr. Archbold was also a co-author on the book Women and Policing in America: Classic and Contemporary Readings (Aspen Publishing, 2011). She authored the text Policing: A Text/Reader (Sage Publications) in 2012 and co-authored the second and third editions of The New World of Police Accountability with Dr. Samuel Walker, University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2014 and 2019 (Sage Publications).

[Autumn Redcross]

Autumn Redcross, Ph.D. directs the Abolitionist Law Center’s Court Watch Program in Pittsburgh. She is currently teaching at Indiana University- Pennsylvania, and has previously been on the faculty of Psychology at Point Park University. Redcross has taught liberal arts subjects including Critical Race Studies, Sex, Gender and Identity Politics, and Public Speaking. Redcross served as the inaugural Gaultier Community- Engaged Teaching Fellow to the Community Engagement Teaching and Learning Center at Duquesne University. She also trained as a Democratic Conversations Coordinator through Everyday Democracy and completed her certification as an Inside/Out pedagogy instructor. Redcross attended the International Institute for Restorative Practices in Bethlehem, Pa., which added to her interest in democratic education, community-trauma informed engagement and restorative justice. Originally from Philadelphia, Redcross lost her brother to street violence which became the starting point for her interest in this work.

[Taili Thompson]

Taili A. Thompson is a co-founder of Realistic ReEntry and the manager for the Office of Violence Prevention for the Allegheny County Health Department. His previous work included ten years with the violence prevention organization, One Vision One Life. Mr. Thompson, also served as the Program Manager for the Pittsburgh Initiative to Reduce Crime (PIRC), for three years. Mr. Thompson co-founded Youth Opportunities Development (Y.O.D.) in 2012 with the mission of developing young leaders in communities that had high exposure to the disease of violence. He served as Executive Director of YOD from 2012-2016. Mr. Thompson a 1991 graduate of Perry Traditional Academy, has his bachelor’s degree in legal studies from Point Park University, and an associate degree as a Paralegal from Community College of Allegheny County. He has been doing community-based work since 1999. His work in the area of violence prevention, specifically, began in 2003. Mr. Thompson is recognized as a leader, and activist in the Allegheny County region.

[Rev. Cornell Jones]

Rev. Cornell Jones is a pastor, activist, mentor, father and husband. He is currently the Group Violence Intervention Coordinator for the City of Pittsburgh where he brings outreach teams and law enforcement together to counteract and prevent violence in the Community. Rev. Jones served as the Protestant Chaplain at SCI Pittsburgh Prison (formerly known as Western Penitentiary) for over 10 years. While working in the prison, he was involved in many crisis deescalating and gang prevention teams such as: Security Threat Group Team, CISM, and the CERT team. He is a crisis chaplain and a trained member of the National Organization of Victim Assistance (NOVA) where he assists people who have been victims of large-scale crimes. He recently launched an internet radio station, WXCN Power Radio, with programs to train returning citizens from the prison system.

He truly has a heart for youth and adults who are incarcerated and the marginalized communities. He continues to walk the path of community activists that his father, the late Bernard H. Jones Rev. Jones, pathed for him many years ago. Rev. Jones was the program manager for Urban Youth Action, founded by his father, who inspired him to always fight for equality for those who are oppressed. He continues to work with at risk youth in schools, detentions center and neighborhoods all over the state of Pennsylvania, who many people label as lost causes. Rev. Jones continues to provide trainings on topics such as violence prevention classes and rites of passage programs with people of all ages. Rev. Jones has been a featured speaker on many college campuses including the University of Pittsburgh, California State University, John Jay College, Penn State, CCAC, Carlow College, Pittsburgh Public Schools and numerous community organizations.

He is a workforce development specialist, a violence prevention specialist, an advisory member of the Allegheny County Violence Prevention Advisory Board and a member of My Brother’s Keeper Committee for the City of Pittsburgh, (founded by President Obama). He was recently featured in the newly published book called “YNGBLKPGH”, which focuses on Pittsburgh’s young leadership and mentors.

Rev. Jones has received many community service awards including the “Dare to Dream” Visionary Award from the South Side Coalition for Peace, the Bernard Jones Community Service Award which is the highest award given by Urban Youth Action and the UYA volunteer of the Year Award. He is also the recipient of the Pittsburgh Black Media’s Communicator of the Year Award and the winner of the Champion Enterprises Local Hero’s Community Award. He was a proud winner of the New Pittsburgh Courier’s Top 40 under 40 people in Pittsburgh and in 2014 he was given the Men of Excellence Award from the New Pittsburgh Courier Newspaper. In 2017 he won the Circle of Courage awards and he recently won the BMe Leadership Award as a result, he was invited to the White House for his amazing work with Black Males. In 2020 he won the BMe Vanguard Award for his amazing work.

As former co-owner of Team Neva, he and his ex-business partner Darryl Wylie, organized the first motorcycle Ride 4 Peace, which brought hundreds of bikers to ride in unity through the city’s rough neighborhoods where there have been numerous killings. Team Neva was also the originators of the t-shirt that stated “Stop Killing” to combat the once popular “Stop Snitching” t-shirt. This controversy stirred up national attention. He is the founder and Pastor of Iron Cross Community Ministries, a community empowerment and anti-violence ministry dealing with street intervention, motorcycle ministries, health, fitness, and Christ Centered Outreach. He is the son of the late Bernard H. Jones (founder of Urban Youth Action and Poise Foundation) and Geraldine Jones. He is the husband of Professor Toya Jones LCSW and the proud father of Cornell, 13 years old and Naomi, who is 9 years old.