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.
Kristen Hughes, M.P.A., (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) Senior Research Associate: Kristen Hughes brings to ILJ over 10 years experience in survey methodology and statistics in the criminal justice and forensic sciences field. She spent over two years at the Bureau of Justice Statistics working in the areas of forensics, law enforcement, and criminal justice expenditures and employment statistics. Prior to that, she worked at the Center for Survey Methods Research at the U.S. Census Bureau conducting survey research on the National Crime Victimization Survey. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and a Master of Public Administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Callie Long, B.S., (James Madison University) Project Management Assistant: Callie Long provides project administration for the Weed and Seed technical assistance project and manages the peer mentoring initiative--facilitating mentoring relationships between Weed and Seed site coordinators. She also collaborates on several ILJ research projects. Callie earned her B.S. degree in Public Administration from James Madison University.
Marti Kovener, B.A., (University of Colorado) Senior Research Associate: Marti Kovener brings to ILJ over 20 years experience in criminal justice and victim services, in non-profit and government organizational development, public policy development and implementation, needs assessment, strategic planning, grant and technical writing, resource development, facilitation, change management, curriculum development, training, and technical assistance. Her areas of expertise include crime victim services, sexual and domestic violence, application of technology to non-profits and criminal justice agencies, collaboration, reaching un- and underserved victims of crime, and cultural competency. She directed the national demonstration project, Victim Services 2000, from 1997-2002, a model network of victim service programs funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Under her leadership, VS2000 received the 2001 Program Leadership Award from the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance. She also served as the Executive Director of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault from 1994-1997. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Women Studies / Psychology from the University of Colorado.
Maggie Miller, B.S., (James Madison University) Project Management Assistant: Maggie Miller is primarily involved in project administration and the public housing safety initiative. She tracks budget expenditures for government grantees and assists on research projects. Maggie earned her B.S. degree in journalism from James Madison University.
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.
Barbara Webster, B.A. (Elon College) Senior Writer/Principal Research Associate: Barbara Webster has more than 15 years experience in criminal justice consulting, research, and publications. She manages several technical assistance contracts for the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, related to community policing, drugs, and gangs. Her research for the Department of Justice and other clients has resulted in publications on a range of topics, including community policing, drug abuse prevention and enforcement, domestic violence, victim assistance, money laundering, urban gang enforcement, and others. Ms. Webster is also experienced as a principal investigator on police management studies for local government clients. Before joining ILJ, Ms. Webster developed juvenile justice and delinquency prevention programs as Assistant Director of the Youth Services Commission, Alexandria, Virginia.