The ABLE Project is dedicated to bringing active bystandership training – and, more importantly, a culture of peer intervention – to police agencies across the country.  The ABLE Board of Advisors brings together an exceptional and diverse group of 20-25 people each year – police chiefs and commanders, line officers, academics, and practitioners – to help guide the ABLE Project.  It is the Board of Advisors’ responsibility to:

• Provide advice and guidance on how best to achieve ABLE’s five core missions.
• Where interests and experience align, join ABLE working groups to help achieve ABLE’s five core missions in a more hands-on fashion.
• Serve as a sounding board for ongoing and potential new ABLE initiatives.
• Serve as an ambassador for ABLE and active bystandership generally across the country.
• Participate in periodic virtual meetings/conferences to discuss issues relating to active bystandership.

The ABLE Board of Advisors all are committed to the power of active bystandership not only to reduce officer mistakes, prevent misconduct, and promote health and wellness, but also to serve as a vehicle for true cultural change.  The Board of Advisors believes teaching active bystandership, and creating cultures of peer intervention, is a key part of transforming not only the culture of policing, but of communities generally.  The Board of Advisors also believes that whatever policing may look like in the future, we will continue to need the skills, strategies, and tactics of active bystandership.

2020/2021 ABLE Board of Advisors

Hassan Aden
Founder and President, The Aden Group

Jonathan Aronie, Esq. (Chair)
Partner, Sheppard Mullin LLP

Roy L. Austin
Vice President of Civil Rights and Deputy General Counsel, Meta

Carimaxy Benitez-Garcia
Police Officer, Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department

Stephen Benson
Police Officer, Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department

Travis I. Brooks
Lieutenant, New Orleans Police Department

David Douglass, Esq
Partner, Sheppard Mullin LLP

Joel Dvoskin, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Arizona Medical School

Kelli M. Evans, Esq.
Almeda County Superior Court Judge

Marvin Haiman
Chief of Staff, Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department

Ayesha Hardaway
Associate Professor and Director of the Social Justice Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Co-Director of the Social Justice institute, Director of the Criminal Clinic in the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic

Michael Harrison
Commissioner, Baltimore Police Department

Tracie Keesee, Ph.D.
Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Justice Initiatives, Center for Policing Equity

Ernest C. Luster
Lieutenant, New Orleans Police Department

Paul Noel
Chief of Police, Knoxville Police Department

Danielle Outlaw
Commissioner, Philadelphia Police Department

Sue Rahr
Director, Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission

Cody Robinson
Detective, Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department

Catherine A. Sanderson, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of Psychology, Amherst College

Ervin Staub, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, and Founding Director of the Peace and Violence Program

John Thomas, JD
Director of Public Safety and Homeland Security, City of New Orleans

Julio Thompson, Esq.
Assistant Attorney General and Civil Rights Unit Director, Office of the Vermont Attorney General

B. J. Wagner
Senior Vice President of Health and Public Safety, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute and Executive Director, Texas ABLE Center of Excellence at Caruth Police Institute at The University of North Texas Dallas

Harry Weiss
Police Officer, Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department

Arlinda Westbrook, Esq.
Deputy Chief (Internal Affairs), New Orleans Police Department

*Project ABLE, ABLE Project, ABLE, and Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement are trademarks of the President and Directors of Georgetown College.

**Some individuals are participating in the ABLE Board of Advisors in their personal capacities.  Where that is the case, title and affiliation are provided for information purposes only.