CJJA Committees

Megan Milner is the Deputy Secretary of Juvenile and Adult Community Based Services for the Kansas Department of Corrections. She began her career in the field of corrections and criminal justice in 2000. Her experience ranges from juvenile intake and assessment, substance abuse treatment, family drug court, correctional facility administration, training, reentry services, assessments, and program evaluation. Megan was previously the Superintendent at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex, the state’s only juvenile correctional facility. Before serving as the Superintendent, Megan served as the Director of Community-Based Services, working with Kansas communities and stakeholders on issues impacting supervision and resources available to system-involved individuals. Megan is a certified public manager, holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Washburn University, and a Master’s in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati.

Cecely A. Reardon is the Commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) in Boston. She joined DYS in 2014 as its general counsel and was appointed Acting Commissioner in January of 2022 and Commissioner in July of 2023.  Prior to joining DYS, Ms. Reardon worked for seventeen years as a public defender with the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), first as a staff public defender in Brockton and later as the attorney-in-charge of the Roxbury office of the Youth Advocacy Department. Ms. Reardon has served as the vice chair of the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee and serves on the executive board of the national Coalition for Juvenile Justice. She is also a past Massachusetts delegate to the Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice. In 2007, Ms. Reardon was the recipient of the Boston Bar Association’s John Brooks Award for Outstanding Public Service, and in 2017 she received the Manuel Carballo Award for Excellence in Public Service from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for her work as part of the Administration and Finance Regulatory Review Team. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice’s A.L. Carlisle Child Advocacy Award. Ms. Reardon is a graduate of Boston College (B.A.), Boston College School of Social Work (M.S.W.), and Boston College Law School (J.D.).

Steven Lafreniere was appointed as Executive Director of the Alabama Department of Youth Services (DYS) July 1st 2014. Prior to coming to DYS, Mr. Lafreniere worked for the Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH) for nearly seventeen (17) years and held numerous positions within that department including: Resource Specialists, Coordinator of Child and Family Services (Mental Illness Division); and Director of the Office of Children’s Services for the Department of Mental Health. Prior to state service, he worked for a Community Mental Health Center as a child and family therapist and evaluated youth in detention who had been committed to DYS. He serves on numerous state and national committees related to At-Risk youth and delinquency. He currently serves as Vice President of the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators (CJJCA). He has worked with youth and families since 1988 through a variety of disciplines and settings.

Mr. Lafreniere is a graduate of Auburn University and Auburn University Montgomery with a Master of Science in Psychology. He lives in Wetumpka Alabama with his wife Kelly and they have two daughters.

Sharon Anderson joined the Division of Child and Family Services in 2005 and currently serves as the Deputy Administrator for Juvenile Justice Services. In this role, she is responsible for the leadership, operations, and oversight of the statewide Juvenile Justice Programs Office, Youth Parole Bureau, and three state-operated residential juvenile justice facilities: Caliente Youth Center, Nevada Youth Training Center, and Summit View Youth Center. She joined the department in July 2005 as a Youth Parole Counselor, for the Nevada Youth Parole Bureau, where she specialized in gender-specific programming. She subsequently served at the same agency as a Senior Youth Parole Counselor and Unit Manager. She also served as the Committee Chairperson for the implementation of Juvenile Justice Reform Bills that passed during the 2017 Legislative sessions.

Prior to joining the Division of Child and Family Services, Sharon Anderson began her career in Human Services as a Residential Counselor for The Devereux Foundation, a residential facility for developmentally disabled individuals. She subsequently served as a Guidance Counselor/Group Worker at Rancho San Antonio, Boys Town of the West, a Corrections Officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons for several years, and before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, she worked as a Juvenile Probation Officer for the San Diego County Probation Department for 10 years.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a master’s in social work administration from San Diego State University, and she is a Certified Public Manager.

Ashley Dowell was appointed as the Director of the Department of Juvenile Corrections (IDJC) in 2024 by Governor Little. Prior to her appointment to IDJC, she served as the Executive Director of the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole and worked for the Idaho Department of Correction in various capacities, to include the Chief of Prisons, Deputy Chief of Prisons and Education, Treatment and Reentry and as a Clinical Supervisor. Director Dowell also serves as the Chair of the Idaho Criminal Justice Commission, the Idaho Insight Oversight Council and is licensed in the state of Idaho as a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and a Registered Clinical Supervisor.

Randy White was appointed as commissioner of the Department of Juvenile Justice in April 2024. Commissioner White brings decades of experience to the department from his service to both the commonwealth and to the nation.

In December 2023, Commissioner White retired from the Kentucky Department of Corrections after nearly 28 years of service spanning six different prisons and central office. During his career he served in numerous leadership positions, including warden of the Green River Correctional Complex, warden of the Kentucky State Penitentiary for six years, and deputy commissioner overseeing all prison operations in Kentucky for over 5 years; during that time Kentucky secured the lowest recidivism rate in state history.   Additional positions include deputy warden of the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex, classification and treatment officer, corrections unit manager, procedures/accreditation specialist and correctional officer.  During White’s career he created and implemented various operational and treatment program improvements benefitting staff, the public and justice involved incarcerated offenders.  While warden at KSP White expanded offender access to educational and self-help programs by over 60 percent and developed and implemented a treatment program targeting offenders from across the system with chronically poor behavior by reducing length of time spent in restrictive housing, thereby making the correctional environment more safe, secure, and conducive to rehabilitation.    This program was later expanded to several prisons in the commonwealth.  As deputy commissioner with Corrections White developed a Narcan program leading the nation as the first prison system to train staff on how to administer this lifesaving drug to prevent overdose deaths.  He additionally created and established a program to manage 18–26-year-old incarcerated felons entering the correctional system, by providing a residential treatment program targeting criminogenic and mental health factors, later referred to as the “The Bridge Program.”

Commissioner White also served with the United States Army and the Kentucky Army National Guard, being mobilized on two separate occasions. In January 2005, White was deployed to Iraq and assigned to conduct combat patrols in the Bagdad area while also working with and mentoring two separate companies of the Iraqi Highway Patrol. He completed a 12-month tour of duty as a provisional military police squad leader supervising nine soldiers and a foreign language interpreter.

Commissioner White graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Science double majoring in corrections/juvenile services and police administration while minoring in psychology.

Valerie is the former Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice. She has more than 30 years of experience in juvenile justice and human services. She is an experienced Independent Juvenile Justice Consultant and has provided management consultation, training, and technical assistance in a number of human services and juvenile corrections settings. She has consulted with federal governmental agencies such as OJJDP, BJA, Health and Human Services’ Children and Family Services Bureau, and the National Highway and Transportation Administration. Her consultation includes considerable work with various state and local entities, along with non-profit organizations including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Ms. Boykin completed undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia in 1980 and received a master’s degree in public administration from Old Dominion University in 1989.

Prior to joining DYS, Alex served as the leader of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Management Office at the United States Department of Justice. Alex also held several roles at the Ohio Department of Youth Services in their juvenile correctional facilities, as well as their central administration; including the statewide PREA Coordinator, PREA Compliance Manager, and Detention Administrator.