ILJ Staff

Cheryl B. Connors, M.P.A. (George Mason University) Senior Administration Manager: Cheryl Connors provides administrative management support to ILJ. Her work experience includes over 20 years in criminal justice consulting, local government, and non-profits. She has experience in criminal justice research, human resource development and management, training curricula development and presentation, organizational development, and project management. Her undergraduate studies were in criminal justice, and she has a Master’s in Public Administration from George Mason University.
Edward F. Connors, J.D. (Catholic University) President: Edward F. Connors has over 30 years experience in police and criminal justice consulting, training, research, and the practice of law. He has directed or participated in more than 500 criminal justice projects for the U.S. Department of Justice, state and local governments, and the private security field, and has worked with more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies since 1973. He has directed more than 75 comprehensive management and operations studies of law enforcement agencies, recently assisting many of these agencies in implementing community policing and dealing with racial profiling, use of force, and other issues impacting police-community relationships. Areas of expertise include law enforcement management and operations, policies and procedures, strategic planning, community policing, narcotics control, legal analysis and research, program evaluation, and private security. Mr. Connors has a Master's degree in Criminal Justice and is an attorney specializing in criminal law and police civil liability. He formerly worked for the U.S. Marshal's Service, USDOJ, Washington, D.C.
J. Thomas McEwen, Ph.D. (St. Louis University) Director of Research/Managing Principal: Dr. J. Thomas McEwen has more than 30 years experience in criminal justice and is a nationally recognized expert in quantitative analysis applied to law enforcement. Dr. McEwen provides expert consultation in evaluation techniques, crime mapping, staffing and resource allocation, management information systems, community policing, and computer crime. He has directed numerous national evaluations and assessments for the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, on such topics as police acquisition of technology, differential police response, community policing, police use of less than lethal weapons, gang crime prosecution, and criminal justice modelling. He has also directed or participated in more than 35 police management studies. Dr. McEwen has worked with the research and planning divisions of the St. Louis, Memphis, and Washington DC police departments and has published numerous reports and journal articles. He has a Master's degree in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Mathematics.