Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis appointed the former First District Court of Appeal judge and former secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation Simone Marstiller as the new secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ).
Simone is a counsel with Gunster, Yoakley, Stewart, P.A., where her practice areas include appellate consulting and litigation, government affairs, procurement, ethics and elections. She joined Gunster in 2017 after retiring from the First District Court of Appeal, where she served as a judge for six years.
She was born in Monrovia, Liberia and grew up in St. Petersburg. Simone earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1988 from Stetson University in DeLand, and her Juris Doctor, cum laude, in 1996 from Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport.
The former Secretary Christy Daly is an active CJCA Associate member serving on the CJCA Board of Directors and is Chair for the CJCA Data and Analysis Committee.
Raymond F. Debolt brings over four decades of experience in public service to his role as Commissioner for the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, and has played an integral role in the reforms and policy initiatives that have gone on in the Commonwealth. Commissioner Debolt leads a workforce of more than 1,000 state juvenile correctional employees working in 28 facilities and 20 community service offices, all of whom are fully engaged in the restorative justice of more than 1,000 Kentucky youth.
Prior to his appointment, he served as the Special Assistant to the previous Department of Juvenile Justice Commissioner Carey Cockerell. Additionally, he served eight years with the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission as a Senior Staff Analyst for the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. His duties involved research policy, advising legislators, drafting legislation, and working with public agencies. The Commissioner also previously served as the General Counsel for the Department of Juvenile Justice from 1997-2006, held various positions with the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Fayette County Attorney. He began his career in criminal justice as a police officer with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Division of Police.
Debolt holds a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Indiana University and a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Kentucky State University. He also obtained his Juris Doctorate from Salmon P. Chase College of Law.
Ryan Gies, Director of the Ohio Department of Youth Services, is a 25-year juvenile justice professional committed to providing youth with the appropriate level of treatment and programming needed to address delinquent behavior. He has helped to lead Ohio’s juvenile justice reform efforts and has influenced reform efforts in other states based on the experiences of Ohio.
Ryan was appointed Director of the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS) by Governor DeWine in Jan. 2019. He has worked for the Department since 1993, including the positions of bureau chief of subsidies and grants, subsidies manager, and community corrections monitor. Throughout his career, Director Gies has worked with community programs for youth and subsidy funding to the county juvenile courts, including RECLAIM Ohio and the Youth Services Grant.
He has actively participated with the Executive Board of the Ohio Association of Juvenile Court Judges, Supreme Court of Ohio’s Advisory Committee on Children and Families, Ohio Family and Children First Council, RECLAIM Advisory Committee, Ohio Ex-Offender Reentry Coalition, Governor’s Council on Juvenile Justice, and the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiate State Steering Committee.
His education includes a Master of Public Administration degree from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Syracuse University in policy studies and magazine journalism.
Harvey Reed is the former director of the Ohio Department of Youth Services. We are very grateful to Harvey for his dedication and commitment to the work of CJCA. Harvey was presented with the CJCA President’s Award in 2017 at the Leadership Institute Meeting in Chicago. Harvey has been active on various CJCA committees and initiatives including hosting the Midwest Region PREA Summit held in 2018. He has been an outstanding leader and much loved member of CJCA. We wish him all the best with his future endeavors.
The Utah Department of Human Services has named Brett Peterson as the new director of Juvenile Justice Services. Peterson has taken over for Susan Burke, who has retired.
Prior to his career with the department, Peterson worked as an attorney in the areas of contract and business law, and then with the Utah Department of Corrections. He began his career with human services as an in-house assistant attorney general, where he worked with youth residential providers and staff to reduce silos and improve access to services.
Most recently, Peterson led efforts to streamline an efficient and effective approach to health and safety monitoring, and to drive system wide solutions to achieve better results for youth and families as director of the licensing office. He originally joined the agency while working as an assistant state attorney general.
The former director Susan Burke was an active member of CJCA who served on the Board of Directors as the Recidivism Committee chair and more recently as the Secretary on the CJCA Board of Directors. We thank her for her commitment and work on behalf of CJCA and wish her all the best in her retirement.
Month Prow has been named Director for the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections. He has been with the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections for 17 years and for the past five years, he has worked as quality improvement director; previously, he did research and projects.
Sharon Harrigfeld retired from the agency in December. Sharon has been an outstanding leader within juvenile corrections and CJCA and served as the first Chair for CJCA’s Positive Youth Outcomes Committee. She served as CJCA Vice President from 2012-2014 and then led the organization as CJCA President from 2014-2016. She will continue with CJCA serving as a Board member and continues to chair the CJCA Position Paper Committee. We wish her all the best in her retirement.
On January 18, 2019 Scott Odum was appointed Director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services. Scott has 25 years of service with Missouri’s Division of Youth Services. Over the course of his career with DYS Scott has held many field level positions in both residential care and case management across multiple regions of the state. In 2011, after serving as a Senior Program Administer, Scott was hired as an Assistant Deputy Director gaining experience in statewide administration of Dual Jurisdiction programming, data production and analysis, the division’s legislative activity and court interactions. In December of 2014 Scott was promoted to Deputy Director where he was responsible for overseeing many statewide functions including the division’s Education department, Medicaid interactions, Dual Jurisdiction, court relations/legal matters, and legislative processes. In addition Scott provided administrative support and structure for the division’s field operations in the Northeast Region of the state.
Phyllis Becker was the previous director in Missouri. Phyllis served on the CJCA Board as the Midwest Region rep. We thank her for dedication and work on behalf of CJCA and wish her all the best with her future endeavors.