Robert P. McCulloch
NDAA Has Found Its New Executive Director
As I indicated in my last president's letter "my next letter should introduce our new executive director." Because of the hard work of your executive committee and board of directors, I am pleased to be able to fulfill this promise.
At their March 20 meeting, the board of directors of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) appointed Tom Charron as the new executive director. As many of you know, Tom is the director of education at the National Advocacy Center (NAC).
In a vote the next day, the board of directors of the American Prosecutors Research Institute (A-PRI) ratified Mr. Charron as their president.
Tom was the elected district attorney in Marietta, Georgia, from 1976 until March of 1998. He left office to become NDAA's first director of education at the NAC. Tom received his law degree from Atlanta Law School in 1972, after completing his undergraduate education at Georgia State University. He is admitted to the State Bar of Georgia, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Tom Charron was an active member of NDAA for two decades. Vvhile a district attorney, he served as the president of NDAA. He also served on NDAA's Board of Directors, chaired numerous committees, served on several executive committees, and served as board chairman for both NDAA and APRI during 1992-93. In 1992, he became chairman of the National College of District Attorneys Board of Regents and served in that capacity until being selected to serve as director of education at the NAC. He has also served as NDAA's representative to the American Bar Association, having sat in the House of Delegates and on the Council of the Criminal Justice Section.
It is anticipated that Tom will immediately start the transition from director of education to executive director and will fully assume the responsibilities by September 1 of this year. We welcome him, his wife and children to our nation's capital.
The selection process brought a number of very qualified candidates to our attention. As a result of a nationwide recruiting effort, we received applications from more than 45 individuals interested in the position. Copies of all the applications were provided to the members of the executive committee and, after review, the committee culled the number to nine to be interviewed.
Our interviews were conducted in New York City during early March. Each lasted one hour and delved deeply into the respective capabilities that each candidate possessed to manage the two complex organizations, NDAA and APRI. After the interviews were completed, the executive committee met for over two hours reviewing the applicants before finally selecting three candidates to present to the full board of directors for their consideration.
During the March 18-20 board meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, each finalist spent about an hour answering questions regarding their ability to assume the role of executive director. They were also given the opportunity to address the members of the board and to socialize with them at a reception.
As members of this association you can be proud of the hard and insightful work performed by the members of the board in making this difficult decision.
Vv'hile the selection of the new executive director was of paramount importance over the last few months, it was not the only activity of your association. In keeping with my last letter, I want to continue to apprise you of what we have accomplished.
Obtaining student loan forgiveness for our assistants remains a matter of great concern. If you read the article about this matter in the March/April issue of The Prosecutor you know what has been done. We have now engaged the help of a new law firm specializing in education law to advise us on our options and the actions we need to take to make loan forgiveness a possibility. It is a tough, uphill fight in these times of great fiscal constraint, but we are committed to do all we possibly can to make it a reality.
The memorial to prosecutors killed in the line of duty should be ready for dedication by September 2004. The executive committee has chosen the first candidates to be memorialized and you can see their stories on page nine. We will keep you posted on the dedication ceremony, and we hope that many of you will plan to attend the dedication.
NDAA was invited to provide our perspective on medical records privacy to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The short notice precluded testifying before the HHS Subcommittee on Privacy and Confidentiality, but we were able to provide a detailed letter outlining your concerns with the implementation of the regulation. It was very well received by the committee and, hopefully, will be a factor in their decision-making.
At our recent meeting in Florida, the board of directors adopted NDAA Policy Positions on Drug Control and Enforcement -- a comprehensive review of the drug problems in this nation from the prosecutor's perspective. We wanted to get this completed before the fall election cycle to give you something to use to address legalization initiatives and the multitude of drug issues that typically appear on various referenda.
These policy positions represent a year's worth of work. Special thanks to Peter Carlisle, the prosecuting attorney of Honolulu who shepherded the policy though the committee system and to the co-chairs of our Drug Control Committee, M. Jane Brady the attorney general (and chief prosecutor) of Delaware and Jaime Esparza, the DA in El Paso, TX.
After a spirited discussion, the board also approved a resolution supporting the Victims' Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. The divergent and extraordinarily eloquent debate by the board on this issue was, in my opinion, one of the finest hours of this association.
You can find a summary of the drug policy on page 34. It is also available in its entirety on the NDAA Web site, www.ndaa-apri.org.
Also available on our Web site are the Victims' Rights Amendment and the NDAA resolution supporting it and the letter to the subcommittee on the medical records issues. I urge you to review them all.
