New Dean Sets Agenda

Thank you all for the warm and enthusiastic welcome provided me in my new position as dean of the National District Attorneys Association’s Education Division. It is an honor to take over leadership of the Ernest F. Hollings National Advocacy Center and the National College of District Attorneys, “America’s School for Prosecutors,” from the very able leadership of Dean Robert Fertitta. As many of you know, Bob was honored on his retirement by the entire Board of Directors at their annual meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Bob and his wife Diane were feted at a lively reception. As the festivities settled down, I began my first summer conference as dean.

It is the responsibility of NDAA’s Education Division to provide prosecutor education at the Ernest F. Hollings National Advocacy Center which is located on Pendleton Street in Columbia, South Carolina, and through the National College of District Attorneys which is now headquartered on Hampton Street in Columbia. As many of you know, NCDA started in 1971 at the University of Houston and moved to Columbia in 1999. The NAC opened its doors in 1998. Last year the college was merged into the National District Attorneys Association.

We are now all one organization, including the American Prosecutors Research Institute, and it is the responsibility of the dean to coordinate the educational efforts of NDAA. With that in mind, I have begun to formulate an agenda for the future. It is my hope that all of you and all of the members of the Board of Directors will join with the Regents of the National College of District Attorneys as we undertake the necessary strategic planning to meet the future educational needs of America’s prosecutors.

It is critical that we all coordinate programs and make sure that we do not compete with ourselves, as we may have done in the past. An obvious priority is to ensure stable funding for the Ernest F. Hollings National Advocacy Center and to encourage support for the premier programs offered by the National College of District Attorneys. The NDAA Education Division has to reach all prosecutors. We have already begun outreach efforts to bring people to the National Advocacy Center who have never attended before. We have a pilot program on distance education and hope that in the future we will be able to deliver quality education to the desktops of America’s prosecutors.

It is the mission of the Education Division to deliver excellent education to those performing the best job in America—the prosecutors.

Personally, I never thought that my career as state’s attorney would end. I was a prosecutor in Connecticut for 31 years and had no plans to leave until I got the chance to be a leader in the education of America’s prosecutors. Bob Fertitta has set the bar high. As dean of the college since 1994 he has brought vision and stability to this highly respected institution. Bob also followed Tom Charron at the NAC, where together they set a standard of excellence in prosecution education. As a prosecutor, I loved to attend the NAC and coveted the opportunity to attend immensely valuable college classes offered at some of the most interesting cities in the United States of America.

I guess I am an incredibly lucky person. I have been able to leave what I thought was the best job in America for what I think may be the only better one.